Questions Jesus Asked - Week 7 (Easter): April 5, 2026

Pastor Nate Rovenstine

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Good morning. Welcome to Connect Church. He is risen. Thanks for coming to celebrate the resurrection here at Connect. And I think we've already done that. We've told the story in song and readings and scripture. We've remembered not only the fact of the resurrection, but why it matters. And I love that we intentionally collectively do that together. That's part of worship. Worship isn't just singing songs and somebody talking, it's us participating, celebrating, in this case, focusing specifically on the resurrection. I was thinking as Clement was reading in his native tongue that this is a story that's being told or will be told or has been told, depending on your time zone, all around the world, and all kinds of languages, which reflects what this is all headed for, that great day when nations from every tribe and language will gather around the great white throne celebrating Jesus, the risen one. So it's just powerful to be part of, like we're part of something more. This isn't, you know, it's a personal relationship with Jesus, we talk about, but it's never private, and it's never us versus them. It's it's this body of believers throughout the world and throughout history and throughout however long it takes till Jesus comes back, right? So anyway, that's second service bonus coverage uh I wanted to share with you. So so I I want to take you back uh to when I was, I don't know what year this was, but I do know that it was the age of Aquarius. Uh so that song came out according to the internet in 1969. So somewhere in that late 60s, early 770s, um, my dad operated a big slide. Is that anybody? Maybe this picture will help you. Remember those? Like all you young people under 50 were like, what in the world? Well, this was our entertainment back then. We listened to jukebox music. There's the jukebox played this song, that song at the slide. And the beautiful thing about this story is my dad operated that big slide, didn't own it, but operated it over the summer of 69 or 70. Can you imagine being seven or eight years old and being able to go down that thing as often as you wanted? I know things have gotten better, but that was awesome for me. Everybody that all the ticket takers knew us, we just would go up and go down and go up and go down. And I had a friend, I don't remember his name, I don't remember what he looked like, but I'm gonna call him Braveheart. All right? I had a friend named Braveheart, and you know, in elementary school, everybody's looking for like how do I fit in and stuff. So I told Braveheart one day, my dad runs the big slide. And he goes, What? I love the big slide. I'm so good at the big slide. In fact, when I go down the big slide, I jump lanes. Braveheart, that's awesome. Come with me to the big slide. My dad runs it. We can go down as often as we want. I don't remember what he said in that moment, but I do know that when we got to the big slide, he didn't live up to his name. In fact, he wouldn't even go to the top. He he went down just the last little playground slide there at the bottom. He just climbed over and just went down that little bit. Braveheart was not as brave as he thought he was. I'm not picking on him. I don't even know who he is at this point. I hope none of you are Braveheart. Like if you remember this story, let me know later. I was the one who traumatized you, I guess. I don't know. But there's been a lot of bold claims made throughout history in personal conversations and public proclamations where people couldn't back it up. Let me give you a couple of examples. Lord Kelvin in 1900 said, There's nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement. Some of you have wasted a lot of money on that post-graduate degree, right? Obviously, there's been a lot more to discover since then. Prime Minister Lord, British Prime Minister Lord, in talking about this rebellion in 1774, said four or five frigates will do the business without any military force. I don't really know what a frigate is, but they needed more than that and they lost, right? So Captain Smith of the Titanic famously said, I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Moder shipbuilding has gone beyond that. Tragic miscalculation. And the one that I liked the most, I think that we can relate to in 1966, Time magazine said this. Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop because people like to get out of the house, like to handle the merchandise, like to be able to change their minds. The hum of the Amazon van in my neighborhood says otherwise. Bold predictions that didn't pan out. And I want to tell you that Jesus made the boldest prediction of all, the boldest statement of all. And he backed it up. We're gonna look at that bold statement that Jesus made. We're gonna be in John, excuse me, Matthew chapter 16 in a moment. But to set the stage for that bold statement, I want to take you back to Jesus' teachings. And we're not gonna look at his teachings this morning, we're gonna look at where he taught. He taught in Galilee. Most of his teachings were either in Jerusalem or in Galilee. Galilee is the area north, it's in the Sea of Galilee around there. There's a lot of the parables came that you know of, the Sermon on the Mount, all of that happened in the region of Galilee. Galilee was a largely Jewish part of Israel. And because the Jewish people had a system, Galilee, that area had a rhythm to their culture. They had continuity and civility in their society. Now, not everybody in Galilee experienced the same access to society's powers and money. For sure it was terribly flawed, but Galilee had a rhythm to it that made sense to people. They kind of knew what to expect. They had seasons and feasts and all of those things. Caesarea Philippi, on the other hand, a little bit farther north, was quite the opposite. It was a Gentile region and it was a place of retreat and revelry where the powerful and rich, oftentimes centurions, Roman soldiers, would gather to kind of get away and blow off some steam, right? It was a place of decadence and pagan rituals, including the abhorrence of child sacrifice. We're gonna look at in a moment what that actually looked like. In fact, let's look at this picture now. Here's a picture currently of Caesarea Philippi. That's modern day-ish. I don't know when that picture was taken, but in 1999, because of the generosity of one of the people who uh still goes to church here, we were able to visit this area. We went to Caesarea Philippi, and it was one of the, honestly, one of the greatest moments of aha for me and the whole trip to Israel. Caesarea Philippi, as you can see, is a beautiful place. Underneath the Caesarea Philippi word, there's a there's a flowing stream. It reminds me of something in Colorado, clear running water, which seems that, you know, we think of Israel as dry and arid, and this is a beautiful, beautiful spot. But it was also a spot, as I mentioned, of decadence and at the at that cave. See that cave at the back, at the base of the cliff, there were pagan temples that were built during different epochs of history there. There's ruins right in front of that hole there. And in those pagan temples, this is where child sacrifice would happen. They would sacrifice children because you see that hole there didn't have a bottom. They couldn't hear when they threw things down there, or they couldn't put a rope down far enough, and so they assumed that that was the gates of hell. That's where, that's where the spirits, the evil spirits lived, and we needed to appease those evil spirits in order to survive. And when you when you make up your own gods, when you create gods in your own image, then you have to be the one who controls those gods and keeps them in line and helps those gods perform the way you want them to. That's just a little bit of thinking. Think about that in our modern culture, right? But that's what that's what created gods do for us. And so the rich and powerful sort of controlled this narrative, which gave them control over the people, and sort of the downtrodden looked to these gods for their source of sustenance and strength because they didn't know where else to look. Everybody needs something to help their life make sense. And so there was this place of power, this place of revelry, this place of evil, this place of child sacrifice and sexual debauchery. And Jesus left Galilee and went to Caesarea Philippi. You wouldn't do that, it seems, on accident. And it seems that Jesus didn't. It seems that he intentionally said, Let's go to Caesarea Philippi. And he went there to ask a couple of questions that would affirm the bold claim that he had already been hinting at and helped the disciples understand who he was. Matthew chapter 16. When Jesus came, or maybe we should say to understand the context better, when Jesus intentionally went to Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say the Son of Man is? And they replied, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But what about you? Jesus asked. Who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. First question Jesus asked is, Who do people say that the Son of Man is? And the disciples gave correct answers. Some people are saying you're John the Baptist, this prophet that was modern prophet, like in their time, in Jesus' time, he had been around, was a cousin of Jesus. Some say you're John the Baptist, some say you are Elijah, Old Testament prophet, some say Jeremiah, Old Testament prophet, or of some of the other Old Testament prophets. And what they were saying was here's what here's the thing. The consensus is among the masses that you are different. You're a powerful teacher, and you're not afraid to speak truth to power. You're not afraid to say what needs to be said, and you and you connect with the common people. See, this is what the prophets did. They connected with the common people and they spoke to the powerful folks in ways that made the powerful uncomfortable, to the point that many of those prophets were killed or persecuted. And the masses were raising their hand when asked, who is this Jesus? And they were saying, Well, he's clearly a prophet. He he's a powerful teacher. In fact, it says at one point, he teaches like no one else. And if you treat Jesus, he wasn't afraid to say what needed to be said at whatever cost it cost him. But Jesus wanted his disciples to know that, well, all of that is true, and we can never let go of that. It's more, Jesus was more than a teacher and a prophet who was not afraid to speak the truth. So he asked him another question, and I don't know. Peter answered it. I get the idea that he kind of looked at Peter, but Peter also just shot off his mouth a lot. So he's the one who answered it. And who do you say, who do you say? See, it's a different question. Who do the people say? No, disciples, who do you say that I am? Peter said, You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Two things. You're the Messiah. That's what Christ means. You're the central figure of the Hebrew scriptures, the one that all of Hebrew scriptures have been pointing at, the one who they were all looking forward to, the one who, if you read the Old Testament, you see over and over again there's allusions to a Messiah. And there's just outright statements. There's a Messiah coming. And the disciples were figuring it out. That's Jesus. You are the Christ. You are the fulfillment of all of our hopes and dreams. And then he went on to say, You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. It's not just another tagline, it's another level. When this statement, with this statement, Peter proclaims that Jesus is more than the Messiah. He doesn't stop being the Messiah who came to set up a kingdom, but he's more than the Messiah. He's the one who literally spoke the creation into existence. You're God, Peter was saying. You're the Son of a living God. This is next level. And notice a progression. The masses all agreed that Jesus was a prophet and a teacher. The disciples, and I'm sure others, were figuring out that he was the Messiah to set up a different and new kingdom. But Peter's proclamation, Peter's confession, Peter's statement decrees that he is God. And can I say this is a much bolder claim than Bravehearts? Or Captain Smith or Lord North or whatever the name of the guy who thought we were done with physics, or statements you've made, or anyone you know, Jesus allowed Peter to proclaim him as God. And the boldness of this claim is shown just a few verses later. I'm not going to read them, but you remember that in these verses, Jesus, who had allowed Peter to call him God, said, I'm going to start a movement. It's going to be called the church. And the gates, and I think he pointed to that temple. I think he pointed over there. And I think if the gates of hell won't prevail against what I'm starting. Can you imagine? A simple carpenter from Galilee hanging out in a place of the rich and famous and powerful who were controlling the people and saying, I'm starting something that's going to take all that down. You better be able to back that up. In verse 16, in verse 17, Jesus replied to Peter after he made that statement, Blessed are you, Simon, son of John. For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. Let's be clear. Jesus had been saying this already. Jesus had been hinting at this, and he would later out and out say it when they came to arrest, or in John chapter 8, before they came to arrest him. In John chapter 8, Jesus uses a phrase, I am. And at that, the scripture says that the people fell back because in that moment Jesus was saying, I am. He was claiming the name of Yahweh from the Old Testament. So this was not a one-off by Peter. This was not Peter being crazy. This was Jesus asking a question to draw out a confession that he had already been hinting at and clear later clearly made a statement about. And you got you have to imagine how hard this was for people who were versed in the Hebrew scriptures. Remember the the Ten Commandments? The first couple of them basically say, You shall have no other gods before me. Don't make any graven images. And he says, The Lord, the Lord your God is one. If God is one, how could God be in heaven? And then how could God be on earth? And it was absolutely confounding to them. But but Peter somehow, in this moment of inspiration, blurts out, You are the Son of the Living God. Jesus asked the right question, but the right answer could only be revealed to Peter by God. This is important to remember, because no one can be talked into believing this claim, regardless of the good evidence for it. Because honestly, this is a claim that's almost impossible to prove. Because this kind of claim, well, actually has been made by others throughout history, is just a claim. It needs some deep evidence. In fact, the only way to validate such a claim is to do something that only the divine could do. And Jesus had been doing a number of things that hinted at or even showed this, but there was also some, I mean, Jesus wasn't the only one who healed people. The Bible talks about evil spirits and and it talks about your priests doing it. Like Jesus did miracle, like his miracles are way exponentially better than anyone else's, but there's still some question. Here's the one thing that no one has been able to do: the resurrection. The resurrection is powerful. We love it because it promises us eternal life, and that is all good. But the resurrection is powerful because it was God who died. It was God who became flesh. It was God who rose from the dead. It was God who broke the chains of death. The resurrection is powerful because Good Friday happened. And Jesus Himself, Jesus Himself makes this connection. He goes on to read in the passage, from that time on, Jesus in verse 21 of 16, from that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Right in the context of this confession, Jesus says, Let me tell you what God is going to do. Let me tell you what the Son of God that Peter has proclaimed is going to do. He's going to go for a cross. He's going to die in your place. And he's going to be raised from the dead. So on this day when we uniquely celebrate the resurrection, this question asked of Peter pulls back the curtain, as it were, on who Jesus is. And the resurrection proves that Jesus is who he says he is, that he's the Messiah, the saving one who's also divine. I left seminary somewhere between the age of Aquarius and now. And I thought, what do I want my ministry to look like? I didn't know where I was going to go at the time. God brought me here and I've been here the whole time. And I thought he gave me a real clear sense of like just to tell people that God became flesh and dwelt for a while among them. And then every implication that goes with that. That's what I've tried to do. The resurrection matters because the incarnation matters. In fact, this morning before first service, I accidentally said Merry Christmas to somebody. And I wonder if the Holy Spirit was reminding me that Easter matters because of Christmas. That Jesus wasn't just a good example, wasn't just a martyr. He was God. So what's left for us is to answer the question ourselves. Who do we say that he is? Let's retrace our steps a bit. Jesus is clearly a good teacher. The best that's ever been. You should read his stories. You should listen to his advice. He's the best there's ever been. He was clearly a prophet. He was not afraid to speak truth to power. We need to listen to how he handled himself in an oppressive Roman government. We need to take our cues from him about how to speak on issues of justice and mercy and compassion. Let's take our cues from him and no one else, eh? That stands. That doesn't go away. And he's the Messiah. He's the Messiah who is setting up a new, has set up a new kingdom that is started now but hasn't finished. And this new kingdom is different than what people expected, but it's a kingdom nonetheless, and he's the king. And in this new kingdom, our walk, our our marching orders are the Sermon on the Mount and the teachings of Jesus about turning the other cheek and going the extra mile and all the things that kind of go counterculture, like we should never forget that we have a new king and we should order our lives by that king. But Peter's answer to Jesus' very intentional question proclaims, and the resurrection verifies that while Jesus is prophet and teacher and king, he also is God, and that's the game changer. And he's asking us who do you say that I am? So just a couple of thoughts that you as you think about how you might want to answer that question. Just a couple of reminders. As God, Jesus has come to be close to us. Whatever it is else about Jesus that we may or may not understand, and listen, if if in your mind it's easy for you to say, yeah, God became flesh, and that's I can get my mind around that, I'm not sure you're thinking deeply enough about it. Like I can get my heart around that, I can get my faith around that. But this is this is unbelievably different than anything else. So while you struggle with some of that intellectually, maybe the Holy Spirit is impressing on you in this moment. Maybe, like Peter, you are you are you are given words that were from a higher source. Maybe the Holy Spirit is saying to you, you know what? Jesus became God, and and I don't know what else that means, but I know he wants to be close to us. In John chapter 1, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We've seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father full of grace and truth. Broken, successful, happy, sad, grieving, angry. I don't know how much how long the list needs to be until you find yourself in it. He wants to be near you. And as Messiah, Jesus has come to save us, to rescue us. The brokenness in us, the brokenness done by us, the shame we carry, the pride we carry, the hurt we've done to others, the hurts that's been done to us, Jesus came to save us. We throw that word a lot around in the church. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. But it really just acknowledges that Jesus came to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, we are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. And maybe this would be the words I would say to you that I would quote the Apostle Paul, make them ours today. I implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God. How? Working harder? Ignoring sin? No. By understanding that God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. There's a lot of debate in the church about what happened on the cross. And I think there's a lot of things that happened. I think there was victory over sin and death. I think Jesus identified you with humanity to the fullest measure. I think he bore our sins and took the judge, he took on uh all that goes with our sins and took our punishment upon himself. And I think he became an example for us. All those things matter. And it was God who did all of that for us. He became sin for us. Whatever that might mean in your life, he became sin for you. Why? So that you could become children of God. And the last thing I would just say as you contemplate who this Jesus might be, is it would be this only those who go to the cross need a resurrection. I mean, we all need eternal life. I get that. I'm talking about spiritual life here now. The only ones who say, I need the only ones who say I need something new in my life are ready to die to what's going on in their life right now. If you come to Jesus and say, you know what, I'd like you to come alongside me, I'd like you to be a moral teacher for me, I'd like you to be a prophet for me. I would like even to embrace the principles of your kingdom, which by the way are very appealing and very controversial and challenging. And all of that is fine, and all of that will help your life, and you'll be a better person if you embrace all of that. But Jesus says, listen, for those of you that want eternal life, the path to eternal life is through the cross. Without a cross, there's no need of a resurrection. This is what Paul said in Romans 6, we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death. In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like this, we will be certainly united with him in a resurrection like his. So the invitation is will you follow Jesus to the cross so that Jesus can give you new life? Will you trust that he is more than a moral teacher and prophet MSI? He's all that, but he's more. He's God who says, I want to be near you and I want to save you. And if you want more information, more thoughts, more questions about that, there's a little card you can mark on your box there, on the connect card that Pastor Jamie mentioned. We'd love to follow you and help you up, follow up with you and help you with that. We're not going to pressure you. Because I'm I've become convinced of one thing in all these years of being a minister, and that is I can talk nobody into what only the Holy Spirit can do. So, God, we thank you. We thank you that you are all the things that you say you are. Most importantly, we thank you that you made a bold claim that you backed up with something that only God can do. I pray that we would wrestle with this truth or we would celebrate this truth this Easter in a new and deep way. That we would ask ourselves a very simple question. Is the structure and form of my life in Galilee working for me? Is the revelry and pursuit of pleasure and creating my own gods working for me? And Lord, if it's not, may we answer the question that you asked Peter. As you ask us, who do you say that I am? May we simply ask answer it by saying, Lord, with whatever amount of faith I have, I confess that I can't save myself, and you are the Messiah. You are God. You want to be near me, you died in my place. And I trust you in Jesus' name.