Lon Solomon Ministries
People Jesus Met Part 16
You know, during the 1930s, theologian Richard Nebor castigated the liberal Protestant church of his day for preaching, and I quote, "A God without wrath who brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross." You know, sadly, seven decades later, within huge segments of evangelical Christianity here in America, we have reached the point where these very same indictments can be brought against us today. And so the question is, how did we get here, and how do we fix it? Well, this is what we're going to talk about today, as we continue in our series entitled People Jesus Met. We want to look today at an encounter between Jesus and his beloved disciple Peter, where Jesus asks Peter the question, "Who do you say that I am?" We want to look at Peter's correct answer, and then we want to bring all of that forward and say, "Well, what difference does that make for you and me today?" So here we go. We're in Matthew chapter 16, verse 13. The Bible says, "When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, north of the Sea of Galilee, up near what we would think of today as modern-day Lebanon, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I, the Son of Man, am?" And they replied, "Well, some say that you're John the Baptist, and others say that you're Elijah, and still others say that you're Jeremiah or one of the prophets. But what about you, Jesus asked, "Who do you say that I am?" Then Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And the word Christ here, the Greek word Christos, literally means anointed one. And as such, it's identical with the Hebrew word Messiah, which means anointed one. And so what Peter actually said here is, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Now you say, "Well, just wait a minute though. You know, I always have heard, I've had people tell me, that Jesus never actually claimed to be the Messiah personally, that he never actually claimed to be God in the flesh personally, that these were attributions that were laid on him hundreds of years later by his followers. Is there anything to this?" Well friends, what there is to this is baloney. This is theological baloney. Feel free to tell anybody who says this to you, that they are biblically ignorant. And I said so, so you can say, "Lon says you're biblically ignorant, and I'll be happy to have them call me if they don't like it, because they are." Look, right here in Matthew chapter 16, the next verse, then Jesus replied, "Blessed are you Simon, bar Jonah, son of Jonah, for this, that is, that I'm the Messiah, the Son of the living God, was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven." Here in Matthew 16, without hesitation, Jesus accepts Peter's identification of him as the Messiah. He accepts Peter's identification of him as the son of the living God, as God in the flesh. You say, "Well, but Lon, maybe this was like a one-time thing, a one-off thing, you know. Maybe this was just like an anomaly. Oh, not so kimosabi." No, no, no, no, look, Matthew 26 verse 63, then the High Priest said to Jesus, "I charge you under oath by the living God. Tell us plainly, if you are the Messiah, the Son of God, then Jesus said yes, it is as you say." Then the High Priest tore his robes as a sign of anguish and shock, and he said, "He has spoken blasphemy. You all heard it. Jesus didn't claim to be the Messiah in a private room with this guy, but in a crowded place, people all around her didn't claim it." Hey, in Mark chapter 15, Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the king of the Jews?" And Jesus replied, "It is as you say." In John chapter 4, the woman at the well said, "Jesus, I know that the Messiah is coming, who is called Christ, and Jesus said, 'I, who speak to you, am he.'" And we could keep on going, but just let me give you one more passage, John chapter 10 verse 31, "Then the Jewish leaders picked up stones again to stone him," the Bible says. Why do you say why they do that? Well, because stoning was the penalty in the Old Testament for blasphemy. And Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father, for which of these are you stoning me?" And they said, "Look, verse 33, we are not stoning you for any of these miracles, but they said, 'We are stoning you for blasphemy, watch now, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.'" Listen, friends, the people in the first century knew exactly who Jesus was claiming to be, and we need to make sure that people in the 21st century continue to understand who Jesus was claiming to be, namely that he claimed to be Jehovah God wrapped in human flesh, the God-man, the Messiah of Israel, and the only Savior of this world. This is how Jesus identified himself, and we must defend his definition, and we must proclaim his definition without equivocation and regardless of the cause. Look, if people want to resist Jesus, if they want to refuse Jesus, if they want to reject Jesus, if they want to renounce Jesus, even if they want to reproach Jesus, that is their right. But the one thing that we as the church cannot allow people to do is to redefine Jesus, Simon Peter, God it exactly right, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Folks, this is where we must stand for Christ, and this is where we must suffer for Christ, and this is where we must die for Christ, if necessary, you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God, amen? But you know, we can't stop here with just the person of Christ, we need to go one step farther. You say, "Well, I don't understand. What do you mean by that?" What we mean is, once we get the person of Christ correct, it inescapably forces us to get what he said about his plan of salvation correct. You say, "Lon, I still am not exactly with you." All right, you will be, listen, let's do a little if-then statement, okay, ready, here we go, if, ready, if, here we go, if Jesus Christ is God in human flesh as Peter identified him to be, that's the if, then everything Jesus said about everything must be utterly correct. Is everybody agree with that? Is that right? Okay, now, what did Jesus say about salvation and about eternal life and heaven and how to get it? Well, he said, John 14, 6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one." They're operative word, folks, "No one comes to the Father, no one gets into heaven and gets eternal life, except through me." Jesus said, John 824, "Unless you believe that I am the one that I claim to be, you will die in your sins. There is no other way out and no other hope for you." And this is why Peter, the same one who identified Jesus here in Matthew 16, this is why later he said, Acts 4, 12, "For salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we can be saved." Okay, so what did Jesus say about salvation? He said that he is the one and only exclusive supplier of redemption and salvation and eternal life and heaven to the human race, that his way is the only way and that his plan is the only plan that will work. Here's the bottom line, folks. The bottom line is that if Peter's identification of Jesus is correct, that he is the promised Messiah of Israel, then Peter's declaration in Acts 4, 12, that Jesus is the exclusive Savior of mankind, must also be correct. These two things are joined at the hip. These two things are both Anne, it's an all-or-nothing deal, you can't separate them, either both of them are correct or neither of them are correct. Now that's as far as we want to go in our passage for today, because we want to stop now and ask our most important question, and I want to hear all you friends at Loudon and in the Edge and around the world on the Internet. I want to hear you, so here we go, you all ready? You sure? Okay, here we go, nice and loud, one, two, three. You say, all right, so what, so you're up there, God bless you, man, you're worked up today preaching your heart out, what difference does any of this make to me? In my life, tomorrow morning, on the Metro, on the Beltway, come on, well, let's talk about that. You know, I was out in the lobby a while back talking, and I met this Jewish lady between services, and she said to me, she said, so, she said, are you telling me that Jewish people who die and don't believe in Jesus Christ, that they're going to hell? And I said, yes, the Bible unambiguously says that, and not just about Jewish people, it says that about Muslim people and Buddhist people and Hindu people and recycling Americans, it says about everybody. And she said, I am so offended, she said, I am so offended. And then she looked at me, and she said, as a minister, she said, doesn't it bother you that what you just said offends me so deeply? And I said, no, honestly, it doesn't. You say, man, you sure are an insensitive person, no, no, no, that may be true, but that has nothing to do with this. Listen, why would I make a statement like that? Let me tell you why, friends, it's because of what the Bible says. Listen to what the Bible says, 1 Peter, chapter 3, verse 15. The Bible says, be always ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you have within you, and do this with gentleness and respect. The Bible says that we are to treat people respectfully and gently and inoffensively as we're giving out the message of the gospel, but, but, no matter how respectfully we might treat people, no matter how gently we might treat people, the message that we are giving out, the message of the cross offends people. And let me tell you why. It's because, number one, when we preach, that people are hopelessly under God's judgment for their sin. And then, number two, we tell them that they're totally powerless to fix this even with all their money and all their education and all their good deeds and all their religious activity and all their philanthropy. And then we tell them, number three, that Jesus died on the cross to provide the only remedy for sin that God will accept. And finally, we tell them, number four, that if they don't rely on what Jesus did for them on the cross plus nothing, they will miss heaven, they will go to hell and that every other ism and ology in the world is false and a lie of Satan. In other words, when we preach the true message of the cross, well, to put it simply, sinners react. They react because this message insults their fleshily pride. They react because this message rankles their sinful self-sufficiency and they react because this message dethrones them from their arrogant belief that they themselves are the king of their life and the king of the universe. The point is that the message of the cross, when preached correctly, is inherently offensive to sinners, it always has been and it always will be, which is why Galatians 511 refers to this as the offense of the cross. And friends, if you take the offense of the cross out of the message of the cross, you don't have the message of the cross anymore. And the Bible tells us that if we preach the message of the cross, the way Jesus told us to preach, the message of the cross, not only will sinners be offended, but beyond that, most often, they will make us pay a price for preaching it. They will make us suffer for preaching it. Jesus said this, John chapter 15, verse 20, Jesus said, "Remember what I said to you, no slave is greater than his master." Watch, if they persecuted me for telling them the true message of the cross, watch now, they will also persecute you. I mean, what's wrong with us? Do we really think that we can present the true message of the cross and get away without any reaction, any suffering, any persecution when the Lord Jesus Christ God in the flesh himself couldn't do that? Come on now, what's wrong with us? And you know, I think the person that I know of who experienced what Jesus said in spades more than anyone I can think of is the Apostle Paul, he said 2 Corinthians 11, he said for preaching the true message of the cross, here's what happened to me, I've been flogged repeatedly, you saw the movie The Passion, you know what this looks like, and I've been exposed to death over and over, five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes with the whip, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned unconscious, I mean, I've often thought if you could have met the Apostle Paul, and if he would have pulled up his shirt and shown you his back, can you imagine what this poor man's back must have looked like? You say, "Yeah, well, on wow, man, you're right, I feel really bad for the Apostle Paul." But I still don't understand what any of this has to do with me, well wait a minute, what all of this has to do with you and me is that the Apostle Paul commanded us to follow his example, in other words, to preach the message of the cross exactly the way it's supposed to be preached and then to accept the suffering that results, look what he said, 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 8. He said, "Do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, but join with me in suffering for the gospel." Hello? Philippians 1, 29, Paul said, "For it has been granted to us for Christ's sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake." Paul says, 2 Timothy 2, 3, "Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." You say, "All right, Lon, wait a minute, stop, stop. So let me get this straight. You're telling me what you're suggesting is that I as a follower of Christ should go out and I should try to bring suffering on myself." Is this what you're saying? No, no, friend. I'm not saying that at all. What I'm saying is that if you and I go out and we proclaim the true messiahship of Jesus Christ the way Peter proclaimed it and we preach the true message of the cross the way Jesus explains it in the Bible, friends, we will not have to try to bring any suffering on ourselves. It'll hang around us like fleas on a hound dog. You understand what I'm saying? It'll come. And this explains why Jesus said, Luke 622, "Blessed are you when men hate you and when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, watch because of me." Not because you're obnoxious, but because of me, because you're standing up for the message of the cross, look, rejoice in that day and leap for joy. You say that makes no sense whatsoever. Yeah, it does, because great is your reward in heaven. Jesus said, "You pay a price for me on earth. I'll reward you back when you get to heaven. You got my word on that." And this is precisely how their fathers, the people that are persecuting you, treated the real prophets in the Bible. Hey, they whipped Jeremiah and threw him in an old well. They stoned Zechariah to death. Jezebel chased Elijah out of town. They sought Isaiah in half. They cut John the Baptist's head off. They stoned Stephen to death. They beat the Apostle Paul unconscious. And of course, they nailed the Lord Jesus to the cross all because these people simply told them the truth about how to get eternal life. And so Jesus says, "You know what? When people begin extracting a price from you because you're trying to tell them how to get eternal life, Jesus said, "Hey, you know what? Rejoice. Take heart. You're in great company. You're with Isaiah and Zechariah and Jeremiah and Stephen and me. Hey, take heart. You're in great company." And so let me conclude by saying that all this leads us to a very searching comment that Jesus made in just a couple of verses forward in Luke 6. Look what Jesus said. He said, "Woe to you when all men speak well of you. For this is how people used to treat the false prophets." So my question today as we get ready to close up is simply this. Can you think of anybody in your life, your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, a friend, some coworker, some neighbor, anybody who is alienated from you today, who is angry at you today because you told them the true message of the cross because you told them the truth about their sin and about their need for Christ and about what Jesus did for them on the cross and their helplessness to fix it themselves, anybody that's upset with you because you told them the truth about Christ. Now, my second question is, if not, if you can't think of anybody like that, why not? I'll tell you the answer. It's either one of two things. Friends, it's either that we haven't been outspoken enough about the gospel or that we haven't been clear enough about the gospel because if we are outspoken and we're clear, Jesus said we will make people upset. If we are outspoken and we are clear, Jesus said we will make enemies. If we're outspoken and we're clear, Jesus said people will get offended. It's just going to be that way. And that's why I said to the lady in the lobby, you know, this doesn't upset me. This is perfectly normal. This is exactly how I would expect you to react based on what the Bible says. You know, I was thinking this week that if I ever got invited to go on the Larry King show, or if I ever got divided to go on the view, or if I ever got invited to go on the Today show, I was thinking, you know, I could go on there and I could talk about Jesus Christ and what he did in the Bible in such a way that by the time I left the show, everybody would be standing in line to pat me on the back and say thank you, Reverend, for coming. God bless you. Hail, fellow, well met. I could do that. But then I got to thinking, you know, if I were to go on those very same shows, and I were to stand firm for the messiah ship of Jesus Christ as Peter did, if I were to go on those same shows and stand firm about the fact that Jesus is plan of salvation is the exclusive and only way to get to heaven. If I were to go on that show and stand firm about the fact that outside of Jesus Christ, everyone goes to hell. If I were to stand firm on those shows that every other ism and every other ology is a lie from Satan and it's totally false and leading people into the pit, you know, I don't really think there would be a huge line waiting to greet me when the interview was over. Do you? I don't think a lot of the stage hands would be standing in line, anxious to pat me on the back and say, God bless you, Reverend, thanks for coming. Actually, I think they try to get me out of there as fast as they possibly could. Point is this, folks will care. The only way to remove the offense of the cross is for us to twist and distort the message of the cross. Do you understand what I'm saying to you? The only way for us to get rid of the offense of the cross is for us to compromise the true message of the cross. This is precisely what theologian Richard Neibor condemned the church for doing 70 years ago and this is precisely what we at McLean Bible Church must not do today. We must preach the true message of the cross from this pulpit regardless of the cost for us at this church and we must share individually the true message of the cross with our friends and our neighbors and our coworkers and our relatives regardless of the cost to us personally. All right, thank you. Listen here, friends. Listen here. Listen here. If we try to take the offense out of the cross, we take the power out of the cross. If we try to preach a message that doesn't offend people, we also will end up preaching a message that won't transform people. If we try to preach a message that makes us popular, we'll end up being popular with man and unpopular with God. It's one or the other. We can't do both and away with this nonsense that is taken over in the modern church because of all of our tolerance and all of our political correctness and all of our diversity that we can please God in the way we preach the gospel and please this world system at the same time. It cannot be done. It's never been able to be done and we're not going to be able to do it either. So it's one or the other. And what I am saying to us is this, we need to stand firm and we need to preach it the way it really is, pure and simple. We need to be gentle. We need to be respectful. We need to be as inoffensive as possible personally. But friends, we need to preach the true message of the cross. And if sinners get offended, well, what did you expect? God told you that was going to happen. And if sinners react and make us pay a price, whatever that price is. Well, what did you expect? That's what God told you was going to happen. And folks, finally, my challenge to us, listen here, is we mustn't just accept the offense of the cross. No, no, we must embrace the offense of the cross. And whatever cost it brings to us, we must understand that it is a privilege to suffer for Christ. It is a privilege to be mistreated for Christ. It is a privilege to have people upset with us because of our stand for Christ. That is a privilege. And we need to see it that way. We need to remember that God says, don't worry about what people do to you down here. One day, you're going to be with me when all that will happen down here is just going to be a distant memory. And what did Jesus say? He said, when people mistreat you, Luke's after six, and they hate you, and they do all these other nasty things to you, he said, rejoice and leap for joy, why? Because great is your reward in heaven. Listen, I'll trade reward in heaven for popularity on earth any day, and I hope you will, too. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, you know that every one of us wants to be popular. Every one of us wants people to like us. Every one of us wants people to feel good about us. That's just being human. It is representatives of the living Christ here on earth. Lord, I'm grateful for you telling us today that that is not a real possibility if we represent you well and correctly. And so Lord Jesus, thanks for making sure we know the cost of standing up for Christ, and thanks for calling us to stand up for Christ. Help us do it, Lord, and accept the cost as part of the privilege of representing the living God here on this earth. Lord, help us as a church family, individually and corporately, to stand for the true message of the cross in this town. Help us to be a lighthouse for the gospel in this town because Lord Jesus, nobody's life's going to get altered from the false message of the cross. Help us to be the people who give out the true message so that there can be true hope for people, for true transformation in their life. Lord, challenge our lives with what we've learned here today individually and corporately. And thanks for speaking to us from the Word of God. We pray these things in Jesus' name and all of God's people said, Amen. Thanks for being here. Bless you. . . . . . .