Going Public

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Jesus takes the confession of faith, and he uses it as the conduit through which he unleashes his power in the church. One of the reasons we urge you to go through baptism is we know that public confession of faith becomes this great catalyst for the outpouring of God's power in your life. When you do it, the Spirit of God begins to work in your life in a new, more powerful way. Welcome to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author, and theologian J.D.

Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. According to tradition, or maybe it's just the social cues we've grown up with, there are two topics you should avoid in social conversations, politics and religion. It's so much easier and more comfortable to just keep our faith a private, personal thing.

To find our comfort zone and to make our faith known. You're joining us today more than halfway through a teaching series called The Whole Story. So if you'd like to hear any previous messages, you'll find them at J.D.

Greer.com. Now here's Pastor J.D. with a message titled Going Public. It annoys me when I go into a convenience store to buy batteries and they want to get my phone number and my email address first.

I'm like, I just want to buy some batteries and anonymity leaves you with a lot more freedom and control. I know that a lot of us wish we had a fake social media account where we could post all the things that we really think. Some of you want to know who fake J.D. Greer is on Twitter. And I wish honestly wish that I knew because there are so many things that I would love to say that I feel like I just can't say because I'm a pastor. Last I checked, fake J.D. has 16,000 followers, which means that at some point the fake version of me is going to have more followers than the real version of me. At which point I think I will have a personal crisis.

It is true anonymity certainly releases you from a lot of accountability. It kind of reminds me of the lady I heard about who came late to the church service. And so she asked the usher, she said, I know I'm late, but I'd really like to sit on the front row. And the usher said, ma'am, I'm happy to do that for you. But I got to tell you, our pastor is super boring and there's a real good chance he's going to put you to sleep. And then right there in the front row, that might be embarrassing to you.

And so I just don't think you want to do that. And this little old lady looks up at this usher and says, young man, do you know who I am? And the usher said, no, ma'am, I don't. And she said, I'm the pastor's mother. The man kind of drops his head in embarrassment. And after a second, he looks at her and says, ma'am, do you know who I am? And she said, no. He said, thank God.

And he walked off. So anonymity certainly releases you. from certain kinds of accountability. And so it's appealing to us, but I want to show you from Matthew 16, why it was that Jesus never let people remain anonymous in regards to him. As you're going to see in this passage, Jesus forced acknowledgement, usually public acknowledgement. And the most important form of public acknowledgement is baptism. Matthew chapter 16, if you got your Bible, look at verse 13. And let's walk through this story together. When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, you asked his disciples, who do people say that I am?

Who do people say the son of man is? Now a little background here that may help this story kind of pop in some color. Caesarea Philippi was a Roman city that had the Romans had built within the borders of Israel up on a hill overlooking the entire Jordan Valley. I've actually been there. It's a beautiful spot.

It's right by a natural spring. And one of the main features of it is this huge rock face wall where the Romans had carved into the rock temple after temple after temple to God after God after God. Caesarea Philippi, this rock face was basically a strip mall for the gods. Well, the newest temple that they had built right around the time of Jesus had been built for Caesar, who was now referring to himself as the son of God and the king of kings and the Lord of Lords.

That was literally inscribed on the new temple that had been built at Caesarea Philippi. By this point in Jesus's life, we know that a lot of people are starting to form opinions about him. Everybody's kind of talking about him. And so who do you think he is? And so Jesus takes his disciples there to this big rock face where all these temples are carved all these gods and he stands right in front of that rock face. And he says, who do people say that I am? Verse 14. They replied, some say that you're John the Baptist. John Baptist just been executed. They thought maybe you've been reincarnated. Some say you're still John the Baptist. Others say you're Elijah. And still others say you're Jeremiah or one of the prophets. Verse 15.

But what about you? He asked, Who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered, You're the Messiah, you're the son of the living God. Verse 17. Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood.

It was revealed by my Father in heaven. Interesting in Mark, the Gospel of Mark's account of this story. This story occurs right after Jesus heals a man of blindness. And what Mark is showing you is that this power to heal physical blindness is really symbolic of a power to heal spiritual blindness. That what Jesus is doing is giving people spiritual sight because spiritual sight is being able to see the truth with clarity about who Jesus really is.

And it's not something you just figure out as a human being because you're smart. It's something that that the Father reveals to you. Verse 18. And I tell you that you are Peter in Greek, that's the word petros.

You are petros. And on this petra, it's a Greek word for rock on this petra, I'll build my church. In other words, Peter and Jesus is standing right here in front of this big rock accessory of Philippi. And so he's making this statement in contrast to all these pagan temples that are carved into the rock on this rock, Peter on this one, not on these on this one, I'm going to build my church. Now, there's a little theological controversy surrounding that verse.

When Jesus says upon this rock, I will build my church. The question is, is he referring to Peter? Or is he referring to the confession of faith that Peter just made? Which one is the rock on which Jesus is going to build my church? Is it Peter or is it on the confession of faith?

And the answer is, it's both. The confessing Peter is the rock on which Jesus builds his church. Listen, this is a prediction, a prophecy that through the apostles, Peter the chief among them, Jesus would write the Bible, which is the record of their confession of faith. And on that Bible, the record of their confessions of faith in Jesus, God is going to build his church, and the gates of Hades, the Greek word for hell will not overcome it.

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. What that means is that they're going to be his representatives accurately recording the way that people can find salvation. Jesus, when Jesus says, whatever you loose on earth is going to be loosed in heaven, what he's not saying is, hey, guys, from here on out, I'm going to let you make the decisions about who goes to heaven. I'll just leave that judgment to you.

No, of course not. That would contradict too many other things the Bible says. In different places, it simply means that they are going to lay out as Jesus's representatives, the boundaries of the faith, and the way that they lay out the particulars of who goes to heaven will be an accurate reflection of what Jesus thinks. It is true Jesus did not leave a Bible when he left, there was no Bible New Testament that existed, but he left a group of apostles whom he had authorized to write one. And he is here promising that the Bible that they write will be accurate. And that what the apostles explained to us about the way of salvation is what Jesus really thinks too.

Does that make sense? The reason I point all that out is because I meet people all the time who are like, you know, I think I'm okay with Jesus, but I just can't accept the Bible. Jesus here told us to accept the Bible.

So you can't really be okay with him if you don't accept the book that he authorized. One more thing there in those verses. On this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of Hades, which I told you is the Greek word for hell will not ever come. This is before it was called Caesarea Philippi had been the very place where in the northern kingdom of Israel, they built this gigantic altar to Baal.

Now this is before it was called Caesarea Philippi. It used to be this big altar to Baal and Baal was the god of the underworld. So this literally for them was the place where Baal, you know, the demons came out. And so it was literally the gates of hell. Jesus was saying that all of the idolatrous confusion coming out of hell itself will not be able to withstand the apostles testimony about Jesus. Then we have a really strange verse. Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anybody that he was the Messiah.

Now, why would he do that? We see for the Jews Messiah was as much a political title as a spiritual one, even more so in fact, because everybody assumed in that day that the Messiah would come as a warrior to throw off the power of Rome. And Jesus knew that once it got out that he was claiming to be the Messiah, it was on right at that point, it was either revolution or execution, there was no middle ground, because to claim that you're a king, in a world that already has a king, especially an insecure king like Caesar, was treason.

It's like walking into the Vatican and claiming that you're the new pope. Jesus is not ready to die yet. So he didn't want them out there claiming that because what he means by Messiah is not what they mean. What Peter means by Messiah and what Jesus means by Messiah in this place are two different things. So verse 21, from that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples, what he meant by Messiah, 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, that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Verse 22, another great verse. At this point, Peter takes him aside and begins to rebuke him. Every week after the first service I preach here, I preach five live on the weekend. And after the first one, I have a group of people that meet with me backstage, after they sat through the first sermon, and they just rip it apart. And so by the time I get up for the second service, it's a fundamentally different sermon. It's a whole move to give that kind of sermon critique to Jesus. But it's exactly what Peter does, right? And he's like, Jesus, I don't really feel like you know what you're talking about.

I'm gonna have to instruct you on a few things. Head like a rock. Probably not what Jesus meant when he called him the rock, but still applies, I think. Never, Lord, he said, never.

This will never happen to you. Jesus turned to Peter and said, get behind me, Satan. Talk about a spiritual high, followed by a spiritual low. Can you imagine Peter talking to his wife at dinner that night?

How was work today? The anchor of his new church, and then that I reminded him of Satan. By the way, one of the reasons we know the Bible is authentic is that it records encounters like this one.

Peter would one day lead the church, this little struggling church, Peter would be the leader. And here in their founding documents, they include a story where Jesus calls him Satan. I mean, be honest, if you were making up stories to gain support for your religious movement, is this the kind of thing that you would make up? I mean, just imagine if you were trying to get somebody skeptical about our church to come to church. No, you wouldn't say that. They put this story in there because it was true, not because it was a cleverly devised myth in order to help foster a movement. Jesus continues, verse 23.

And any of those things. And so verse 24, Jesus said to his disciples, whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. All right, let's stop right there. And let's look at what we can learn about the importance of public confession from this. When I use the word confession, I'm referring to the public confession of what you believe. I'm not talking about confessing your sins. That's a different use of the word confession than what we're going to use. Okay, so publicly professing what we believe, the importance of it.

Here we go. One, we see from this passage that confession of truth is the rock upon which Jesus builds his church. Did you see how Jesus ties all of his power, all of it, to the confession of faith? When Peter makes this confession, verse 17, Jesus tells him, man, these things are not revealed to you by flesh and blood. Peter, you didn't just figure this out. Only the Spirit of God can give you this kind of vision. Only the Spirit of God can give you spiritual sight. I'm not up here trying to out-reason you into the faith. I'm up here depending on God to open up blind eyes, to be able to see what God reveals about Jesus.

That's the only way. I think I've described it like this to you before. Imagine a guy who is up on top of a mountain, kind of a rock face, and he's clinically insane. He thinks he is a bird and so he can fly. So you come up behind this guy and you're like, hey, don't jump. You offer him a free choice. You can jump if you want to, but you'll die.

Or you can come back down with me to safety. Now he's insane. He thinks he's a bird. He's going to choose freely every single time. He's going to choose to jump.

No matter how you ask the question, he's going to jump. So say that you had the ability, I don't know, maybe you had like a shot that you could give him that has an antidote in it that would restore his sanity. And let's say that you were able to stick him with a needle and restore his sanity to it, and then you ask him the exact same question and give him the same choice. Say it the exact same way. Now, with his sanity restored, what's he going to choose?

He's going to choose every single time to come back down. The difference is not in how eloquently you ask the question, it's not in how well you presented the problem. The difference is solely in the sanity of the heart that received it. Well, see, in the same way, I know that ultimately I'm not up here trying to out reason you into faith as if I'm the smartest guy in the room. And if you can just see what I see, then everything's going to be okay. I depend on the Spirit of God to be able to open eyes, which is why I tie myself so closely to the Word of God.

Why? Because the Word of God is like that needle that restores sanity to people. The Word of God is the power of God that is taking by the Spirit of God, and it's used not to make dumb people smarter, but to make blind people see and dead people alive.

Right? So all of Jesus's power he puts on that confession. Furthermore, verse 18, Jesus says upon this rock, I'll build my church. Jesus takes the confession of faith and he uses it as the conduit through which he unleashes his power in the church. One of the reasons we urge you to go through baptism is we know that public confession of faith becomes this great catalyst for the outpouring of God's power in your life. When you do it, the Spirit of God begins to work in your life in a new, more powerful way. It's like we saw when Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven on him like a dove.

Now it doesn't work exactly the same way for us, but that shows you that at your baptism, the Holy Spirit begins to flood and work through your life in a new and more powerful way. That's why we are careful as much as we can be here to not change the confession. You see, our temptation today, some at church, is to reshape our message according to what we think will work in our society, to make Christianity more appealing by altering it in those places where it's most offensive. Oh, people will never believe. People will never believe if you say there's only one way of salvation.

Oh, no. You know, if Christianity doesn't change its views on sexuality, then it's going to die. I hear that all the time. And you all, I'm telling you, that is so appealing. It is so appealing to alter the confession. But when you do that, you cut yourself off from the accompanying power of God.

This confession was unpopular in those days, too. I mean, think about where Jesus was standing. He was standing in front of a gigantic monument to Roman pluralism. Rome in the Empire, Rome said you can worship whatever God you want to worship. In fact, if our God, your God, isn't represented up here, you can just worship a new God, make up your own God if you want.

The one thing you can't do is you can't say that your God is the only God. And you've got to worship God under the rubric of this emblem of Caesar being the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In fact, church history, toward the end of the first century, one of the emperors, one of the Roman emperors asked the Christian leaders, they said, we would like to put a statue of Jesus in the Pantheon. Pantheon was the place where they kept the statues of all the Roman gods. Now, what do you think the disciples did?

You think they were like, are you kidding me? I mean, here we are, a little backwoods movement, a bunch of fishermen. And now we're being invited to put a statue in the Pantheon. Look how far we've come. We got a statue in Congress now.

Isn't that amazing? No, they were like, if you put a statue of Jesus in there, we're going to tear it down because we're not putting him as one among many of the gods. And we're certainly not putting him in a place that has a symbol on it that says Caesar is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Jesus Christ is the Messiah. He's the son of the living God.

The disciples would not change it, even though it was wildly unpopular because they knew that if they changed that confession, they would lose the power of God. Now I've described it before. I think to you another way like this, imagine you got a high school guy who, you know, has got his eye on some girl. And so he works up all of his courage to go talk to her one day at school. And he goes up to her and says, Hey, would you like to like to go out?

Right. And he's thinking she's never going to say yes in a hundred years, but to his utter surprise, she says, that sounds great. So he's not prepared for what's next. He hasn't thought about what's next.

He was just bracing himself to be shot down. So he, he's like, well, why don't you give me your phone number? I'll figure out what I'm inviting you to. And, uh, and she says, all right, that's great. You got something to write with and he doesn't. So he's like, just tell it to me and I'll remember it. And so she's like, okay, my number is nine, nine, nine. I mean, she'd be nine, one, nine, five, five, five, one, two, three, nine. And he's like, I'm never going to remember the nine. I'm going to get confused on the nine. I tell you what, why don't we make it five, five, five, one, two, three, four.

That's easy to remember. I'll write nine, one, nine, five, five, one, two, three, four, if you want to. But the person that answers on the other end of the line is not going to be me.

If you want me, you're going to dial nine, one, nine, five, five, five, one, two, three, nine. The disciples understood, yes, we can alter this to make it easier and more appealing. But what we will do when we alter it is we will lose contact with the presence of Jesus.

In every culture, there is a temptation to compromise something in order to become more acceptable to the culture. And our day may be one of the biggest is to remove what Jesus teaches about sexuality. Just change that.

Just change that. And you won't be so hated in society. I always think about Revelation two, where Jesus talks about a church that was faithful in every other way, except they tolerated those who taught and practice sexual immorality. And because of that, Jesus removed his presence from that church. People say, well, if you don't soften your stance on this, you're going to lose people. It's like, humbly speaking, I'd rather lose people than lose the presence of Jesus any day.

You can keep your CNN pundits, I'll take Jesus. When you confess faithfully, you gain the power of God. The power of God, the power that gives sight to the blind and heals the leper and makes the lame walk and raises the dead begins to flow in the church and in your life.

That's what we need, not a Christianity that reshapes itself to fit society and gains the approval of the Romans. That's the faith that comes with it, the power and the healing blast site giving power of the almighty God, which leads me to number two. Number two, if we confess faithfully, we are unstoppable. If we confess faithfully, we're unstoppable. See verse 18 on this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of hell itself will not overcome it. People usually treat this verse like it promises that Jesus will protect us from all of Satan's vicious attacks on us. I don't worry when the church is attacked because the gates of hell will not overcome you.

They will keep us from plundering his kingdom, not his inability to plunder ours. Let me ask you, are gates an offensive weapon? Have you ever attacked somebody with a gate? Do you beat them over the head with a gate? No, gates are a defensive weapon.

Gates are designed to keep people out. Jesus is saying that when we confess faithfully, not only will he preserve and protect our church, he will enable us to advance God's kingdom into Satan's most wealthy of all fortified strongholds. God has grown this church tremendously.

Why have we baptized 5,424 people in the last 14 years? Praise God for that. Are we satisfied? A few of you are excited, but in our hearts, we're all excited. Are we satisfied with that? Are we going to huddle up and say, okay, God, now protect our son, our families. Oh God, the candidates this year for president are terrible and America's going to hell.

How are we ever going to survive? He promised us that if we be faithful in our confession, he would let us advance deeper and deeper in the enemy territory. That reminds me of a true story I heard about Abraham Lincoln who was meeting with his war council one day. And right in the middle of the Civil War when he, one of the couriers comes in and whispers something to one of the generals and the general stands up and says, Mr. Lincoln, I am very pleased to be able to tell you that we have finally pushed the enemy out of our territory. And back into his own, Lincoln looks at all the other generals and he said, when will my generals learn that the whole country is our territory? Jesus is not content to simply be Lord of the church. He died to be Lord of the whole earth.

And to catch up on previous programs, visit us at jdgrier.com. A great way to start surrendering our lives is by knowing the word of God better. After all, that's why we're here every day on your radio station. So in this teaching series, The Whole Story, J.D., what's the main thing that you're hoping listeners will take away from this study? You know, one of the challenges of studying the Bible is it's 66 individual books written on, I think it's three different continents by 40 different authors. Sometimes it's hard connecting them all to this one story because the whole Bible, Jesus said, was all about him. It was all about how he was coming, his love for us and his salvation plan. I'm hoping that through this series, you'll get a picture of the whole story and realize that everything really connects, that these are not primarily stories of saints that we're supposed to emulate.

They're stories about a savior God wants us to hope in and adore. To go along with this and to help in that, we're giving you something here with this series called the Books of the Bible Cards. It's a set of cards that will help you as you read to make connections between whatever book you're studying with the big picture. It'll give you historical context, but even more importantly, how this particular book or this story connects to Jesus. It's a wonderful little resource produced by our friend Mary Wiley.

Good thing to keep near your Bible or where you study the Bible that will help you make sense of the whole story. We'd love to get these in your hands or connect you to other resources that may help you at JDGrier.com. We'd love to get you a set of the Books of the Bible Cards as our way of saying thanks for your support of this ministry. You're invited to request them when you give a donation at the suggested level of $25 or more. Your support helps to keep this program going. So when someone hears the good news of the gospel for the very first time through this broadcast, it's your generosity that made it possible.

We're so grateful. Today is the last day that these cards are available, so don't wait too long. Give us a call right away to donate and ask for your set of Books of the Bible Cards. Call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220.

Or if it's easier, you can give and request the cards online at JDGrier.com. I'm Molly Vinovich, so glad to have you with us. And be sure to come back tomorrow when Pastor J.D. continues his series called The Whole Story on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.