Who We Are, Part 2

A.W. Tozer wrote several decades ago that the lack of exposition of scripture, he wrote, is oftentimes nothing more than the preacher's unwillingness to get himself into trouble. And he reminded his generation of pastors, and it rings in my ears. And we need a reminder again that preachers are not diplomats delivering compromises. They are prophets delivering ultimatums. This is truth or error.

This is right and wrong. As we look around our nation today, it's evident that the culture is shifting even farther from the foundation of God's Word. But instead of hiding away in fear or stewing in anger about our dark world, we have a great opportunity to be a lighthouse of truth. It's true for pastors and it's true for all of us. To stand firm, however, we first need to clearly define who we are as Christians.

What does it mean to be a true church? In this lesson, Stephen Davey establishes our core identity. We are followers of an unrivaled master and we are messengers of an unchanging manifesto. Here's Stephen Davey with a lesson called, Who We Are.

Turn in your Bibles to the Gospel by Matthew and specifically chapter 16. I'm going to give you two points. I had planned in my outline to give you four.

I ran out of time, so we'll give you two. And first it's this. We are mastered by an unrivaled master. We as a church are mastered by an unrivaled master. We are the slaves to our creator, God. We are his servants.

He is not ours. Now, in this classic text in chapter 16, Jesus is going to start asking his disciples about opinions related to who he is. This is more significant now than ever. Who is Jesus Christ? And Jesus comes into this district, we're told in verse 13, of Caesarea Philippi. Now, I don't want to get boiled down here, but let me at least set the stage. He's asking this in an area where there are 14 temples, some of them dating back to the worship of Baal.

They're all around. Nearby Caesarea Philippi is a hill, and in that hill a deep cavern from which the Romans believed the god Pan, P-A-N, was born, and he was viewed as the god of nature. In addition, in this city was a magnificent white marble temple built by Herod the Great for the deity, the glorification of Caesar. So I find it very interesting and no doubt not a coincidence that Jesus is going to ask the question to his disciples about who he is against the backdrop of every evidence you can imagine that he is nothing, that the gospel is nothing, that there is no such thing as one god. With that as the backdrop, he asked them here in verse 13, who do people say that the Son of Man is? That's a title given to him. And so they begin to give him all the opinions.

They leave out the mean stuff, but they give him, you know, some of the nicer rumors. Some say John the Baptist, verse 14. Others, Elijah. Still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. It's interesting to me to consider Jeremiah, the Jews of Jesus' day were holding to the legend that Israel would be restored a great glory after Jeremiah rises from the dead, and they had a legend to believe that he'd rise from the dead, that he had hidden the ark and the coverings for the tabernacle and the altar in a cave, and that he would rise from the dead, reveal the location, bring these elements out, and the glory of Israel would return. Maybe he's the man that's going to bring back the glory of Israel. They go on, one of the prophets, and in other words, just one of many prophets in line. Now verse 15, here's the crucial question.

Every one of us needs to know the answer to this, by the way. Who do you say that I am? See, he really didn't care about the earlier stuff. He knew the rumors.

He's focusing on the lens out. Now who do you say? Have you caught it yet? Do you know who I am? Am I just another prophet in line? Am I just a good man? Am I a little miracle worker?

Am I a motivational speaker delivering the golden rule, never judging anybody? There is no more important question for you to ask and answer than this one. Who do you say Jesus is? Peter responds in verse 16, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. His response declares two things. First, that Jesus was the Christos, the Messiah. And secondly, that Jesus Christ was nothing short of less than deity, God the Son. Now in the original language, this phrase is only 10 words long, but there are four times this definite article appears for emphasis.

And I could render it for you rather woodenly. It would say this, you are the Christ, the Son of the God, the living one. In other words, there isn't any other.

You're it. God the Son, God incarnate, the Messiah, you are unrivaled. Now I'd really like to stop here and expound on all this things, but I'm really trying to get to verse 18.

But let me, let me at least say this on this declaration. Jesus is not just another prophet. He is the subject of, he is the glorious consummation of prophecy.

He isn't just a teacher. He is the eternal word. He is the Logos, Paul said to us and to the Colossians.

He spoke. He was the word that spoke the universe into existence. He isn't just a man. He is the God, man, God, so that he can forgive us man so that he can die for us. He isn't just a positive thinking motivational speaker who delivered a golden rule and never said anything judgmental about anybody. Well, just read what he said.

You'll find that's not true, but certainly isn't. He actually speaks of judgment and he will be the judge. Revelation 20 on the splendid throne, terrifying, horrific scene where he will judge all the unbelieving mankind of all oral.

In fact, when Paul came to the Athenians, when Peter preached the first sermon to that audience, both of them said you need to repent because judgment is coming. Politicians and I watched one professor this past week in his class online and pundits. They're all congratulating each other over the sophistication and the advancement of our culture. We've rewritten the morals. We've kind of grown past this idea of a single God who's going to judge us. We've evolved one church leader, former church leader said, we've evolved past that all.

They're clapping each other on the back and reminding everybody and us that you don't, they use this phrase over and over again, you don't want to be on the wrong side of history. Listen, you don't want to be on the wrong side of God. So Jesus informs Peter that his statement was actually inspired by God the Father and then says here in verse 18, here's what I want to get. But I say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church. I say to you that you are Peter.

To the English reader, we missed this pun. He says, you are a small stone. But upon this immovable boulder, I'm going to build my church.

And you the stone fits into this. In fact, Peter got it because later he'll write in one of his letters that we are all stones built together to form the house of God. We're built upon the foundation of Christ himself. And when Jesus said this, by the way, because his disciples had grown up hearing the Torah, they wouldn't have missed it in the Old Testament. This is an attribute and it belongs to God.

He is the rock and his work is perfect. Deuteronomy 32 verse 4. The Lord is my rock and my fortress. Second Samuel 22 verse 2. For who is God but Yahweh the Lord and who is a rock but our God? Psalm 18, 31.

Jesus is basically calling himself God. And upon me, the bedrock of who I am, I will build who you will be. Jesus delivers this wonderful prophecy and as you can imagine, it's one of my all time favorites.

I don't know many texts that I have often gone to in my mind over these very fast 29 years and it has given me wonderful peace of mind. Jesus said on this bedrock, I will build my church. His church? His church. My church, he said.

I will build my church. And the gates of Hades will not overpower it. And maybe he just kind of turned around and he pointed to a few of the temples. They represent death. They represent false religion.

They represent false prophets. And maybe he said, and even this which represents the gates of Hades will not overpower what I will build. To them, they got the picture for us, it's a little bit lost and the gates of the city was really a reference not to the big wooden things that swung open but to the rooms just inside. It was referred to as the gate. I had a chance to see some of them, some of these archeological digs that date back to Solomon's day, you can see the gate.

These are rooms just inside the front gates. This was where the elders sat. This is where the administrators planned. This is where the city fathers made decisions.

This would be our version of the town hall. So Jesus is effectively telling his disciples that all the plans and all the strategies and all the developments and all of the leadership of Hades will not be able to overpower what I'm going to build, the church. It's the first time he uses that precious word for you and me. It's the word ekklesia, church. It refers to those who are called out. It refers to those who have been summoned together.

We have been summoned. From our perspective, we accepted Christ. From God's perspective, he actually by his grace summoned us and placed us by his electing, saving grace on this bedrock which is unmovable. He's talking about the church universal throughout the New Testament.

It talks about, it uses the word ekklesia to talk about the church local. Jesus is our builder. He is our maker. He is our definer. He is our defender against the plans of the underworld and darkness.

He is our master and he is absolutely unrivaled even though the evidence might look like he's nobody. So as one author said, let's not talk about standing on the rock and then act as if we're clinging to driftwood, as if we're not sure we're going to make it. We're not clinging to driftwood. We're standing on the bedrock of Jesus Christ. We're mastered by an unrivaled master. Secondly, we are messengers of an unchanging manifesto. If you go to Webster and you look that up, you discover that a manifesto is a written statement declaring the views, the intentions, the motives, the agenda of its issuer, of its author.

So we the church have been given a manifesto. We haven't made it up and I often tell people I have the most unoriginal job on the planet. I don't come up with this stuff. I'm not up here weekly to give you my opinion.

I do have an opinion. Put me over to the side and I'll give it to you. But that isn't this place.

This place belongs to the exposition of sola scriptura. This is the manifesto given to us by our master. It's his will.

It's his views. It's his intentions that we hold to. In fact, the apostle Paul will remind a young pastor who many believe was probably intimidated by the task before him. And he said to him, look, you happen to represent the church, which is the pillar and ground of the truth. First Timothy three fifteen. God has delivered to us his truth.

It's like a pillar, unmovable. He doesn't ask us to make it up. We're not clever enough anyway to come up with it. We don't deliver our views or our motives. This isn't our message first.

It is his. One author wrote recently, it was Al Mohler and one of his blogs I read this summer were called to be people of the truth. Even when the truth is denied, even when the truth is is not popular, God's truth has not changed. The scriptures have not changed. The gospel has not changed.

It is still. And here's why it's so important. It is still the power of God unto salvation.

Like C.S. Lewis said, he said the gospel isn't marginally important. It is entirely important.

It saves. One of the reasons I'm excited about the potential of the true church is that we will be more clear than ever in our culture that we hold to God's truth and in that his saving gracious power. We're surrounded, though, by perhaps a greater problem even than our unbelieving culture, and that is the church. The church, which is confused, the church which is composed of unconverted people and unconverted pastors. If you go back in church history, you study, you read as I did the biography of George Whitfield who preached outdoors primarily because he couldn't preach indoors. He wouldn't let them. During those days of Great Awakening, he and Wesley would bemoan the fact that they couldn't find converted pastors.

We're not there yet, but we're getting there. In fact, one author provoked my thinking. He said that the church is filled with three kinds of Christians. He called the first cultural Christians. He wrote, they represent in his polls and studies about 25% of the so-called Christians of this country. He said, but if you take a closer look, as he did with stringent questions he polled with, he found a huge segment of people who said they were Christians, but only because they didn't want people to think they were atheists or Jewish or some other religion or even pagan.

So we're Christians. He went on to say that when calling yourself a Christian, as these people do, when Christians are identified now with people who are marginalized and mocked, these unconverted Christians are going to just slip away. He went on to identify another large segment within the church. He called them congregational Christians. He wrote, these people really don't express any real life commitment to Jesus Christ. They don't really care about the Bible in that they haven't read it between Sundays or even looked at it. They have some loose connection to a church, either through a family member or maybe they were baptized in the church or they're members of a church and they have a record of somewhat sporadic attendance, never to serve but only to be served. They go because it offers them some peace of mind and it's a good reputation.

It's where you meet nice people, pass around your business card. But he said when the church loses the approval of culture, the revulsion and resentment of culture, this segment also will quietly disappear. With both cultural Christians and congregational Christians, the author summarized, they want whatever they have because it's good for them.

They're Christians in name only. And then he suggested that what will arise is what he calls convictional Christians. Churches that are filled with them will be robust, committed to Christ and his mission and his word.

And with that he was optimistic. Frankly, I'm looking forward to the day when the true church is defined by the clarity of the gospel and even its meetings, even its meetings defined by sola scriptura, defined by the exposition of scripture, defined by people meeting with and having a holy sense of awe for their righteous God. A. W. Tozer wrote several decades ago that the lack of exposition of scripture, he wrote, is oftentimes nothing more than the preacher's unwillingness to get himself into trouble. And he reminded his generation of pastors, and it rings in my ears. And we need a reminder again that preachers are not diplomats delivering compromises.

They are prophets delivering ultimatums. This is heaven or hell. This is truth or error.

This is right and wrong. Churches gathering for the sake of rehearsing that and then living it out with grace and winsomeness and tact and love, but standing nevertheless. This is the church.

This is our manifesto. And it's amazing how many churches have just abandoned it and they're interested in everything but that. Just yesterday in the mail, I received another large, colorful card inviting me yet again to a church that promised me, as I read it, energetic music, dynamic preaching, dynamic preaching, not just preaching, but dynamic preaching, and great programs for kids. Now, I'd love to get a card advertising a church where the messages are not, you know, advertised as dynamic, but faithfully and tediously committed to the text where books of the Bible will take years and years and years and years to be taught.

Come here and spend forever in one book. Man, that'd be a great card. I'd love to get an advertisement from a church that didn't announce their music as energetic, but as true and faithful to the character of God because he's the one we're singing to. I personally hope that the scoffing of our culture will sober up the church to remind us that our job isn't figuring out how to get as many people as we can in here, that our job isn't being trendy or relevant or cool or whatever. I'm praying that the jeering of our culture, where the volume will increase over time, returns the church to the glory of Jesus Christ. You want to know how Paul was praying for the church? He was praying this, I bow my knees to the Father, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened in the power of the Holy Spirit, that he would be glorified in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations, including ours, including ours. I can't think of a better time for us to be alive, for us to be mastered by the divine master, to be messengers of a divine manifesto.

It's his. Will there be a storm? There's been a reprieve, one author said, from the storm.

We've had this wonderful time in history that may very well be coming to a close. No lighthouse was ever built to get rid of a storm. No lighthouse was ever constructed with the thought by the builders that if we build this, the heavy winds will run away. It was built for that.

It stood for that, to offer a light home for those who, by the grace of God, would see. So don't give up. The storm is not a signal that you have failed, that you individually in your world are we together corporately. It isn't a signal that we need to stop running, turn the light down.

No. A few weeks ago when I close with this, I watched the news footage. It's rather painful to watch of a female Olympic athlete who was competing just this past three weeks ago, I believe. She was at the World Athletics Championships in Beijing in America. She was clearly in third place.

If you watch the footage, you'll see that she's going to win her bronze. She was unaware that someone was working her way up behind her. She neared the tape, unaware of that. About three steps before she reached the tape, she threw her hands in the air and celebrated her victory. Threw off her gait, it slowed her down, and in that brief moment, that other runner raced past her and won. And it just kind of summed up everything when you saw the picture of her with her head in her hands, weeping. She told the reporter that this kind of race is not really tactical, it's hard.

It's just hard. And she said, this will probably be the only time I will be fit enough to run it. She celebrated too early. The world is celebrating too early. But can I turn that analogy around and tell you as a church, don't announce defeat too early. Don't announce defeat.

Jesus is standing with shrines surrounding him, a magnificent temple to the deity of Caesar. He is for the most part a penniless, homeless son of a migrant worker. If there was ever a time when they would say, you know, we're not making much headway. What do you say we pack it in? You are the son of the living God. And that is our message. This is who we are. We belong to him. We're on the bedrock of the character, following the truth of Christ. With that, we conclude lesson one of a series entitled, Upon This Rock.

This is wisdom for the heart. And over the next several lessons, Stephen Davey will be working his way through a series on what it means for a church to truly be a church in the way God designed. And the lesson you heard today is called, Who We Are. I hope you'll be with us in the days ahead as we continue through this important series.

The church needs to be the church, and we need to live and function as God designed. Stephen's going to help us with that as we continue working our way through this series in the days ahead. If you're one of our wisdom partners, the November issue of Heart to Heart magazine is about to go out in the mail. Heart to Heart magazine is a monthly resource that we send to all of our wisdom partners. It's a way of thanking you for your faithful support of our ministry. Each issue features a series of articles from Stephen based on a theme for that month. Those articles help you understand and live out the Christian faith.

They're written to encourage you and equip you as you seek to follow Jesus Christ. Now, if you're not one of our wisdom partners, we'd be happy to send you the next three issues of our magazine. You can sign up on our website, wisdomonline.org, or call us today at 866-48-Bible. That's 866-482-4253. Please join us tomorrow for more wisdom for the heart. Thank you.