Title Doctrine Sermon (8/10)-Do you know Jesus?
Title: Do You Know Jesus?
Text: Matthew 16:13-20
Date: 2008. 8. 10. Sunday Day Worship
Someone left a conversation with a friend from college on his website. His question, “My friend, is CCC a Christian gathering?” When my friend said yes, he asked again, "But why does Zeus keep appearing?" His friend was very upset and said, “Zeus? where?" He showed him the document, and his friend said to him, "Crazy, this is Zeus, this is Jesus." After introducing a conversation with a friend, he continued: “It was. This is the first time I realized that it was Jesus, not Jeus. Interestingly, there are many such confusing names used in Christianity. The Virgin Mary has a similar name to Maya, the mother of the Buddha. But are all of these coincidences?”
What is the Christian response to this claim? Today's text is the most appropriate answer. The text consists of a dialogue between Christ and his disciples, especially between Christ and Peter. Here, what Christ said and the response to the disciple Peter's answer could be the "Christian answer" to "the way of God, the way of men."
What is the Christian answer to all the controversies that make you doubt Jesus?
First, silence.
Jesus asked his disciples at Caesarea Philippi. “Who do people say the Son of Man (Jesus) is?” (Matthew 16:13). Jesus was somewhat concerned about the reactions of unbelievers. If Jesus cares, neither should we be indifferent. We need to pay attention to how Korean society views the Korean church and what Korean society criticizes toward the church and Christians. We need to listen to well-founded criticism and reflect on whether we are truly positioned in the world according to God's will. The disciples conveyed the people's opinion of Jesus (Matthew 16:14). At that time, people saw Jesus as John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, and one of the prophets. Their evaluation could not satisfy Jesus. Because they saw Jesus as the same “man” as we are, but a better “prophet” than us. At this point, Jesus was “silent”.
The reason Jesus was silent was because it was a reaction he had expected. You can see this by looking at what Jesus usually said. “If the world hates you, know that it hated me before you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but the world hates you because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world” (John 15:18-19). Regenerated Christians are those who belong to Christ. Jesus Christ came to destroy the world, that is, the kingdom of the devil. Because of this, the world cannot love Christ. Ultimately, you are working against Christ and the kingdom of God. Please note that the name Satan means “against God.”
The reason the world opposes Christ and the church is because it is engulfed in spiritual confusion. “Among them, the god of this world (the devil) blinds the minds of those who do not believe, so that the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ cannot shine through, for Christ is the image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4). The devil is blinding the minds of the unbelieving world. To blind here means to “blind.” Spiritual blindness cannot be solved by knowledge. Also, it cannot be solved even with a good heart. If you fall into this kind of confusion, you will not believe in Jesus even if the heavens and earth are full of reasons to believe in Jesus. On the other hand, if someone raises suspicions, your ears are persuaded as if you have found out even a secret. Jesus was silent about people's reactions, knowing that the world was in a spiritual stupor.
It is not our wisdom that we believe in Jesus. It is believing with the help of the Holy Spirit. “But when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth, and he will not speak on his own, but will speak what he has heard and will make known to you things to come” (John 16:13). The Holy Spirit kindly guides us into the world of truth. If we are blocked by the wall of sin and receive no help from the Holy Spirit, we will also be claiming, “Jesus is not God,” “He is a manipulative God,” and “Christianity is fiction.”
Second, Jesus is the Son of God who came as the Savior of the world.
Jesus asked the disciples' position. “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15). Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). The Christian priesthood is distinct from the Jewish priesthood. Judaism believes in “one God,” whereas we believe in “a triune God.” What is the Trinity? In essence, it means that there are three independent Gods in one God. The three independent Gods are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God the Son (Son) took the flesh about 2000 years ago and came as a real person in history. Jesus came in the flesh to die. It was because of our sins that Jesus took on flesh to die. He was crucified and executed to set us free from sin and make us children of God. You were anointed with oil for this mission. Therefore, Christ (Hebrew-Messiah, meaning: anointed) can be paraphrased as “the Savior of the world.”
Third, lies cannot defeat the truth.
Jesus taught his disciples that the powers of Hades could not overcome the church. “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18). The powers of Hades represent the gates of the underworld. It means that the gates of the devil's kingdom cannot defend the advance of Christ. Where the gospel is witnessed, the kingdom of the devil is collapsing and the kingdom of God is expanding. Where the truth is proclaimed, Satan's lies are exposed and lose their effectiveness. The influence of lies is temporary. That's why they show up in new clothes every time to dazzle people. Also, the influence of lies is limited. A lie no longer works for the soul that God has begun to call. On the day of the calling, the smoke screen of lies will be lifted and the sun of truth will rise.
Professor Lee Eo-ryeong is one of Korea's leading scholars, who knows Japan better than Japanese. His keen intellect made a sharp attack on Christianity. Then he became a Christian at the age of seventy. A divorced daughter battling cancer cried every night for her poor fatherless son who was diagnosed with special autism, and she had a problem with her retina and was on the verge of blindness. As a father, in the face of the tragic tragedy of his daughter, he could not help. But God healed her. At this time, he discovered that God is alive and began to have faith.
He remembered when he was six years old. On a sunny summer day, a six-year-old boy cried as he rolled his hoop. Even as an adult, I couldn't figure out why I cried. Unable to understand the meaning of those tears, the boy continued to write and write until he reached the age of seventy. He hesitated to believe when he found God through his daughter's healing. As soon as I entered Heavenly Father's arms, my intellectual wandering was over and I thought I would no longer need to write, so I hesitated to believe because I was afraid of giving up writing because I found the answer to tears. There is no theory more powerful than meeting God. The discovery of the truth destroys the theory of man without God. There is no room for lies in the face of truth.
“The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh. but the power of God to break down any stronghold. To overthrow every theory, and every exaltation that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).