09/05/21 Sunday Morning, Matthew 16, "Who Do You Say I Am?"

right about now [Music] so good morning regeneration church how's everybody doing today all right you excited to praise the lord let's stand in worship and if you're coming in come on in and take a seat and and we're gonna uh praise our lord let's open in prayer father we thank you for this morning lord we we lift you high god uh lord we uh we love you lord with all of our heart soul mind and strength lord and we ask that you receive this service lord as an offering to you god lord we honor you in this place lord we glorify you holy spirit come god fill our hearts lord fill this redwood grove lord with your praises lord lord we thank you and we bless your name today in jesus name amen [Music] don't let us worship our king [Music] he has done great things see what our savior has good see how his love overcomes he has done great things he has done great there and break every chain oh god oh jesus [Music] you've been faithful through every storm you'll be faithful [Music] forevermore and i know you do it again for your promises yes [Music] [Music] and break [Applause] [Music] hallelujah you have done great things [Music] hallelujah [Music] you're free every captain and break every chain oh god you have done great days oh you have done great things oh god [Music] [Music] [Music] one will not fail me now you won't fit me [Music] things [Music] oh yes i will lift you high in the lowest valley yes i will bless your name oh yes i will sing for joy when my heart is heavy all my days oh yes i will [Music] i [Music] [Music] is [Music] i will bless your name oh yes i will sing for joy when my heart is heavy all my days oh yes i will for all my days oh yes i will not choose [Music] and nothing can stand against when i choose to praise [Music] [Music] [Applause] and i choose [Music] [Music] yes i will bless your name [Music] [Music] oh yes i will for all my days oh yes i will for all my days oh yes i will [Music] amazing love that welcomes the me of mercy that with blood [Music] me [Music] and god you're so good you're so good [Music] the sinners the work of your power [Music] your soul [Music] to me [Music] [Music] thank god you're so good [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] but i will remember calvary has bought for me both now and forever [Music] god [Music] yourself you're so good [Music] and god [Music] [Music] [Applause] your [Music] god [Music] [Applause] you're so good [Music] [Music] you're so [Music] yes so good you're so good to me please stand for the reading of god's word matthews 16 13-18 when jesus came into the region of caesarea philippia he asked his disciples saying who do the men say that i the son of man am so they said some say john the baptist some say elijah and others jeremiah or one of the prophets he said to them but who do you say that i am simon peter answered and said you are christ son of the living god jesus answered and said to him blessed are you simon bojona for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven and i also say to you that you are petal and on this walk i will build my church and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it it may be seated follow me me oh follow me oh all right good morning welcome to regeneration church if you are online then we're glad you're here i mean it's a it's a big day today as we start a new series called jesus follower if you are watching online then please um comment like subscribe because we want to get the word out um not to make um our church known but to make jesus known and really that's our goal and the heart uh behind it so welcome this morning thank you kids uh jesus follower is really what it's all about this morning um i wanted also to um share last week i put this slide up there and some people didn't get the information you know what's happening in afghanistan um so many refugees trying to get out of there as the taliban has taken over and so many christian churches um that are going underground there's a lot of christians that they just said hey we're going to stay here we realize this is the situation that we're in and there are three ministries that i've done some research that i um i really think are doing a good job of helping not only those that are being rescued from afghanistan but for those that are still there and those three ministries a world relief samaritan's purse and a catalytic ministry so if you are interested in supporting those ministries you can go to those websites and find out what it is that they do to bring the gospel in in ways that show a real tangible support and love to the body of christ also this morning as we are considering what it means to be a follower of jesus uh the patrick family is here and i know that they didn't want like anyone to announce that in a sense but thank you guys for serving how many years 10 years faithfully in peru and then in chile and they are back here um stateside so thank you guys let's give them a welcome and we love you guys we've been praying for you guys we're praying for what the lord has for you and you guys blessed me tremendously just your family is such a blessing so we're glad that you guys are here uh this morning um this introduction to this new series i just need to pray again uh to ask the lord to help us drink water from a fire hydrant with a straw this is something that has been pent up in my heart for um about six months and um as it's as it's growing and i've been writing and i've been studying i just really believe this is a message that the body of christ needs today so let's just pray father today we ask that your holy spirit opens our hearts and our minds not only to understand but to receive lord i pray for those that are searching lord maybe watching online maybe they're here and and have been struggling to understand things that are happening around them and and uh lord there are those that are seeking god there are skeptics and we ask that we thank you that skeptics are listening and they're they're um here and they're leaning in wanting to know and father for those of us maybe that have already decided to follow jesus at some point in our lives god we need to be renewed today holy spirit speak to us help us change us we pray this in jesus name amen so jesus follower a little bit of background before we go into this it's going to be 14 weeks i didn't realize this i just started doing topics um for jesus follower and realized that 14 weeks is a college semester so uh you're going through a college semester and and when we think about before devoting 14 weeks to this uh you might have some questions number one what makes this study different than any other study or maybe another way is is this any good um the value comes in your interaction with jesus it's not just about the teaching it's how you interact with the lord and how you interact with others that's really what makes the strength i believe of um going through this series uh rewarding second question is why can't i just go through this material alone if you're a part of the life group then every week i'm sending a chapter lord willing this becomes a book of discipleship but as you're looking through this um can't i just go through this material alone you could but you could also practice tennis against a wall all right so you could just like hit a against the wall and just go back and forth and like hey that's it but there is something that happens when you're playing against someone else the same thing is true when it comes to meeting together um we've become so individualized in the west that we often forget the body of christ is a whole body and needs one another it's not enough just to attend or just to watch online engagement means that i struggle i share prayer requests i ask questions i do that in community and the last thing is do i really want to do this and i don't know if you want to but i would bet that you need to if i were a betting man i'd bet a lot of money that you actually need to do this um and i do bet sometimes i'll bet that you you need to you need to um this is so important and by betting now now i went on this rabbit trail i'm saying like penny annie poker i'm not like i'm not like taking my my paycheck and going to the tracks anything like that but if i were to do that i would bet that you need this jesus follower because in the polarized crazy world that we live in we all need to know what it means to be a follower of jesus because there are some people that say they're followers of jesus and they act one way and other people that say they're followers of jesus and act another way and so we need to look to scripture and i really dedicated this time um this study to you this um series is for you if you want to grow in your walk with god along with others who want to do the same it's for you if you feel stuck in your walk with god and you feel numb or bored or apathetic it's for you if you feel frustrated and saddened by angry christians and angry politicians and angry democrats and angry republicans and your own angry self this is for you if you want to understand how to filter the news in a world in a wise and compassionate way without getting deceived or duped this is for you if you haven't been around people in a small group in a long time so you want community you just don't know if you have the emotional energy for it this is for you if you have questions that you want to ask but you're afraid to ask at church because you're afraid you might be the only one that thinks that way this series is for you if you're skeptical about god and struggling with doubt or disillusioned by christians this series is for you if you love jesus and want to know him more and follow him more faithfully it's for you if you want to find out who jesus is and you wonder if you even need church to do that and this is for you if you're tired and worn out and burned out on religion and if any of these apply to you then this series is really dedicated to you jesus told us that all authority in heaven and earth has been given to him he said go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you and behold i am with you always even to the end of the age and yet it's interesting that in contemporary christianity what has displaced the bible as our authority and guide for living has really been church culture and church culture depending on what church you are a part of will look different from place to place really culture in america and and culture anywhere culture in chile culture in el salvador culture in the philippines culture in china culture in the united states sometimes as followers of jesus we don't even see that we're following culture more than we are following jesus because in some ways it comes it's so natural for us to live in culture it's kind of like a a fish doesn't know that it's wet because it's surrounded by water and sometimes in our culture we don't realize that some of the things that we think and some of the ways that we act are more according to our culture around us than according to biblical truth and the culture of the kingdom of god i found it providential to be part of a cohort of pastors at western seminary that started in the fall of 2019 before the covid pandemic hit america we grew in relationships we started studying the word of god together we come from different denominations different tribes and because of that coming together we started realizing we were challenged in some of our own individual idiosyncrasies of baptist or presbyterian or calvary chapel or pentecostal or whatever it might be and we just wanted to get to the root of what it means to be a faithful follower of jesus faithful to scripture and as we did that 2020 happened and everything kind of shut down our cohort met together mostly on zoom during that time but what we found out is that we had this gift of being together even though it was over zoom because what happened in 2020 and 2021 is that coveted 19 hit i don't know if you rem i remember the day that it was the shelter in place order it was so weird that scott's valley looked crazy because everyone was at nob hill and at safeway and i was trying to grab vegetables and i just grabbed whatever vegetables i could find and these super like messed up vegetables that no one would eat i can't remember what it was i just i just grabbed them and i threw them in my cart and i get home and my kids are like why did you grab those i'm like because we're gonna need to eat and we need vegetables i mean that's how crazy it was if you remember that time it and then shortly after that the fires and you remember what um all of santa cruz county looked like um on this side of the hill it was just it was crazy everyone was evacuated and then we went through um the elections in november and then george floyd earlier in in the summer had gotten killed and it sparked a lot of protests and a lot of um realizing that there are things that need to be addressed but then there's an organization called black lives matters that the the sentiment is good but the organization itself has some um insidious i believe uh motives behind it and so it became really conflated it would be like if they're a group called we love jesus and imagine that group called we love jesus that sentiment is true but then they started doing some things at the root of the organization that were bad and then someone says i hate we love jesus and you say oh you hate that like it created this confusion and then being four police officers absolutely damon gusweiler santa cruz county sheriff's deputy gets killed and then you remember all of the sirens that were going on and it was tense it felt a lot like to me what i read about when i i read about vietnam and the 60s and the kent state riots and the assassinations of jfk and martin luther king and all of the things that were happening then i'm going like hey i didn't really live through that but i'm reading about it going this is that and and what is the church going to do and what i found out is that the church and by the church it's a broad brush the church in the west at least from what i've seen got really confused in many cases and in many cases started standing on certain things rather than looking at jesus and instead of jesus being our guide we started looking and i say we in a broad brush i realized not everyone but many people started following news anchors and politicians and what other people are saying and it just became very divided and and social media became a dumpster fire it still is it's still smoldering and in that dumpster fire every once in a while i want to check to see what's burning and i'll check it out okay it's still burning and then i'll back out of it again because i feel like at times it's so toxic that that i feel angry and i feel frustrated and it's not that i'm putting my head in the sand i'm just choosing to read news instead of watch news and i'm trying to do that once a day instead of 24 7. and it it has changed the way that i see things and it is lowered in a sense the anger and and realizing that we live in a crazy world but can i bring can i experience the peace that jesus said in this world you will have tribulation but take courage take heart i have overcome the world my peace i leave with you not as the worldly gives do i give to you and if i experience the peace of jesus myself then i could bring the peace of jesus with me as a non-anxious presence in the middle of a world of chaos but if i am spending more time watching the news and listening to pundits and what everyone else is saying about things i'm getting more frustrated and now you put me in a public sector with other people and i'm just adding fuel to the fire that is already there so again it is not burying our heads in the sand it is not being unaware it's just what the gift is that i want to give is what i experienced during this time during my cohort of seminary we had number one a strong theological lens through which we could make sense of the things we're facing we tried to make sense of the world through looking at scripture faithfully second we had a community of disciples these are pastors from all over the country that gather together and realizing we are all going through the same thing in houston in seattle in portland uh in oklahoma city in all of these different places we're facing the same things it might look a little bit different where you are than where i am but we're going through the same stuff and we're trying to do it faithfully to the lord and the third thing is it gave us a capable pastor or mentor and gary brashears to help walk us through that that's why discipleship in a church is important if i don't have any authority in my life other than god other than the holy spirit and the bible which obviously we realize that's enough in a lot of ways but in a lot of ways it's not we again we've become so individualized that we say it's just me the bible and that's it that's all i need well how many people said it's just me and the bible and started a cult how many people said it's just me and the bible and had blind spots like peter an apostle that in the book of galatians paul said i had to confront peter to his face this is peter we're going to read about peter in matthew 16. and paul said what you're doing is not right peter had a blind spot that lovingly paul needed to confront and if peter who needed paul to show him that yeah i was going a little bit off needed some help do you think you and i need some help do you think you and i need some other people to help navigate things to ask us questions so if it is just me with my smartphone on my chosen news source and my chosen social media feed and i say i understand everything and i don't need anyone to tell me because everything that i'm reading keeps telling me the same thing do you know why that is it's because those smart companies have algorithms that say oh this is what he likes let's give him more of the same and when he looks something up on google he's going to find something different than his wife deanna will find or his kids will find or people at his church will find because it's going to be curated specifically towards him we need community and in that community jesus says follow me and he takes a guy like simon the zealot you know what a zealot was a zealot was someone that lived in guerrilla warfare against the romans we will not cave in to caesar we will not bow down we have all of these outposts we are hiding we're going to hijack their supply line we are going to go underground we are going to fight the government in every way possible that we can and then there's another guy named matthew who's a tax collector a total sellout this guy collects taxes for the roman government for his own people and kind of rips them off because he's a tax collector and what happens is jesus says hey simon and matthew i'm going to put you on the same team follow me and now they are faced with are our individual differences going to fall aside and are we going to follow jesus's truth or are we going to go to our separate corners and treat each other as enemy and by the way jesus even addressed that when he said love your enemies bless those who persecute you bless and do not curse when jesus said that he said you have heard it said you shall love your neighbor as yourself but i say to you i say not only love your neighbor but love your enemies love the people that disagree with you love the people that have a totally opposite point of view and it doesn't mean that you capitulate or you give in and now you just start acting like they act a protester to my message man um this is so important so we are going to look at what it means to be a jesus follower by the lens of sound biblical theology life and spiritual renewal i need to be renewed myself so that i could help renew others and bless others i need life and community and i need life and a mission and that happens primarily through life groups our life groups are the places where we gather together and talk about these things in a safe community that is able to look to scripture together and say let's let's let's see what jesus has to say let's see what god's word has to say and by the way the church needs to make sure its foundation is on christ rather than an autonomous individualist individualistic customized christianity a.w tosser said this your theology leads to identity what you believe about god is the most important thing about you what you believe about god is the most important thing about you because it's something that is actually going to last so again um i'm just going to give you a real quick preview i like this when i take classes i want to know where we're going today is our introduction to jesus follower who do you say that i am then we go into a section called theology gospel justification sanctification what does it really mean what is the good news what are some of the false gospels today um sanctification is is so important uh living a life that's set apart for god then um we are going to life in the spirit it's surrender renewal and freedom what is real freedom in christ look like it's not just a freedom from it's a freedom too it's a freedom to worship it's a freedom to live the life that god intended and then we are going to go into life and community the ministry of a peacemaker conviction without compromise serving as a way of life and then we will finish with life with a mission it's fruitfulness and faithfulness vision this is important rest and relationships um personal sabbath and and solitude with the lord so that we hear from god and we are renewed and we're not just being religious going through the motions so that is a long introduction that i think is important so that you understand what we are going to be doing and this morning we are going to look at the crucial question who do you say i am it's the question that jesus asks by the way the word crucial what does the word crucial mean does someone yell it out important right do you know where that word comes from it comes from the latin which is the base word for crucifix whenever you think what is the crux of the matter same thing it's what is the center and it leads to the cross what is the crucial question it leads back to the cross so turn with me in your bibles to matthew chapter 16 and we are going to pick up in matthew chapter 16 verse 13. matthew chapter 16 verse 13. if you're using an electronic version of the bible turn off everything else don't go into the rabbit trails where you're looking up the verse then you get a text from someone that causes you to look up the weather and then you're interested in the weather in another part of the country and then you're planning your vacation okay don't i just look at the scripture matthew 16 13 when jesus came into the region of caesarea caesarea philippi he asked his disciples saying who do men say that i the son of man am this question who do people say that i and then he says the son of man to make sure that they understand that that's a phrase for the messiah jesus who do people say that i the son of man am and so in this place called caesarea philippi i want to show you this picture here of a map this map is the distance between jerusalem and a place called tel dan i'm getting some slide errors so maybe you might have to do that manually to the next slide this is from google maps and by the way i've been to both jerusalem and this place called tel dan if you know about the 12 tribes of israel one of those tribes is called the tribe of dan and the tribe of den was actually given the territory that was in the south you see at the very bottom where the the red dot is maybe if you can't see it's just at the very bottom of the map jerusalem is right there and next to it towards the coast was the the tribe of dan but why is dan now in the north it's because the tribe of dan that was given this territory said i don't want to stay in this territory i don't want to stay in the place that god planted me it is too hard there because there's another group of people called the philistines and the philistines they keep attacking us let's move to idaho so they they move to idaho they buy this large property they build gates and they get they dig wells and they just get out of dodge all right they don't want to be in santa cruz on the coast they don't want to be in the bay they're like hey i got to get out of here so in this new place called tel dan they realized and there was a civil war that was happening it was a civil war a cultural civil war in a lot of ways between two of the tribes of israel called the tribe of judah and the tribe of benjamin and the rest of the 10 northern tribes and so because there was a split the two southern tribes said we are going to follow our own king and the ten northern tribes said we'll follow our own king jeroboam and rehoboam and there's this split after the life of solomon so what happens is the tribes in the north say this jerusalem is where we are supposed to worship that's where the temple of god is but now we can't go there because our enemies our brothers judah and benjamin are there and they have possession of the temple we are going to worship in a different place and we are going to build our own place for worship that is the place that if you go to the next slide of caesarea philippi and in caesarea philippi by tel dan this is an um this is an archaeological dig that you can go and find and it is where they built for themselves an altar that looked similar to the one in jerusalem but instead they put a golden calf in the middle of it how stupid is that do you remember the golden calf in the book of exodus after they came out of you know god rescued them through the red sea and moses is up on mount sinai receiving the law and and while he's up there everyone's going like hey he's taking too long let's do something and aaron who is left down there says oh let's let's go ahead and do this and they all bring their gold they build this golden calf and they worship it and god judged them but notice they are doing it again so i look at america and realize we have done some stupid things in the past personally i have done some stupid things in the past but how many times have i gone back to doing stupid things that i already know are stupid and are wrong proverbs says says it like this it's like a dog returning to what it's vomit that's what it's like when you go back to those things that you already know are stupid and they're wrong and you do them anyway and that's what they did if i can go to the next slide i'm going to show you why they chose this area this area of caesarea philippi is one of the most beautiful areas in all of israel it is the fountainhead of if you go just a little bit north of where they are in tel dan there's the nation of syria and in syria there's a mountain called mount hermon we have mount hermon right here right in the in the mountains mount herman in israel is where the dew would fall upon upon mount hermon it would trickle down into the ground into these underground rivers and it would come up in caesarea philippi where it would be the fountainhead of the jordan river beautiful place if i were to choose a place to settle in israel it probably would have been until then but the thing that happened there is they started worshiping other gods this foundation that they set when the tribes broke up and they dan went to the place they weren't supposed to be by the time of jesus caesarea philippi is what it was called and caesarea who is that named after caesar who is the king and caesarea philippi just designates it as the different caesarea than the caesarea that's over by the ocean and what had happened is they started worshiping the god of pan okay the god of pen it's where we get the word panic um the god of pan was a god where um this false god if he started to get scared and started to like get the chills and like goosebumps they would say pan is here because pan would cause panic it's where we get the word panic so therefore to not panic and to have peace you would try to appease the god of pan you would try to calm your anxiety to calm your worry to calm your stress by worshiping this false god and you know it's interesting today we try to calm our worry and our anxiety and our stress by doing things that are not healthy and so that's what they did jesus comes onto the scene and in this place of all places he says who do men say that i the son of man am now in verse 14 they said some say you're john the baptist some say you're elijah others jeremiah or one of the prophets in other words some say you're john the baptist what did john the baptist preach someone yell it out repentance repentance is turning away from sin reform a new leaf you're john the baptist you came to preach this message of uh in a sense try to do good turn away from things and that was partially true but not the full truth jesus taught repentance but then he was going to show that he was the way to the father right they also said that he was elijah what is elijah known for calling fire down from heaven these miracles you're elijah you're gonna call fire down from heaven in fact uh james and john who are brothers they come to one city that rejects jesus and what do they ask him hey do you want us to call fire down from heaven like in other words they just rejected us you know it's uh what was the name of the makeshift city in seattle um what chaz or whatever it was called it would be like they were saying look at those people look at what they're doing they want to be anarchists they don't want to follow you can we just call fire down from heaven and and so jesus tells him no you know we're we're not gonna do that uh some said that he was jeremiah what is jeremiah known for he's called the weeping prophet uh jeremiah always it seemed like to the people of israel and judah he always seemed to have bad news and jesus you're telling us to repent bad things are happening we're not following you're like jeremiah so all of these people wanted to hijack the message of jesus you're either a moral teacher you are a miracle worker and we need you on our side you are uh jeremiah social activism you're one of the prophets and that is pantheism it's post-modernism it's you're just one of many and a lot of people say that about jesus today i like jesus but he's just one of many prophets and there are other prophets you could follow you could follow muhammad you could follow buddha you could follow so many other religious teachings jesus is good he's just one amongst many and then jesus goes on and we can go to slide 15 the next slide now he doesn't say who do those people say that i am he says who do you say that i am in verse 15 he said to them but who do you say that i am and simon peter answered and said you are the christ the son of the living god the crucial critical important question is not what do other people say about jesus because in the crazy cancel culture that we live in they'll say oh look at what christians have done let's cancel jesus or jesus said i am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me that is very narrow-minded let's cancel jesus and they've said that from the beginning and jesus is saying who do you say that i am and peter said you are the christ now by the way the word christ means the anointed one or the messiah israel had waited for the messiah their savior he also is the savior of the whole world and being the messiah everyone was waiting for a messiah that they thought would ride in on a horse into jerusalem and just go braveheart on the romans that's the messiah that they were looking for i think that in many ways many christians today are are wanting that kind of a messiah jesus will come back in his second coming but the message of judgment that jesus is going to bring is for jesus to bring that not from me to bring it the message that i'm to bring which we'll see in the gospel is the good news that you could turn away from destruction and self-destruction and sin and being separated from god and you could turn towards jesus because god loves you and wants you to come into a place of receiving him as savior and lord of your life that is the good news and jesus says who do you say that i am and peter says you are the christ the son of the living god now on the next slide in verse 16 when peter answered and said you are the christ the son of the living god maybe the previous one one back let's see if there you go leave it here for a second who do you say that i am this rock of faith here peter is this little rock he is a key apostle god used him mightily but it's not on peter that the church is founded it is christ that peter pointed to the christ the messiah the savior the anointed one the son of the living god that is saying you are deity you are the son of god who has come in the flesh now we can go to the next one and then jesus said answered blessed are you simon barjona for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven and i also say to you that you are peter and on this rock i will build my church and the gates and the gates of hades shall not prevail against us the bedrock of christ is the foundation of his church notice jesus says i will build my church not you will build my church now we partner with him okay we partner with jesus but ultimately jesus is the one that is building the church and i want you to hear when jesus said on this rock i will build whose church i will build my church jesus said my church not your church peter not not your church anyone a billy graham pope any religious leader it's not your church jesus said i will build my church the word church is ecclesia which means the gathering the called out ones and jesus said those people that are called out to follow me those are my followers because they are following me now in verse 19 and 20 he said i will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven and then he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was the christ now the word for bound and loosed it's important to know that jewish rabbis would they would ask are we bound to this law are we bound to this um commandment gentiles had certain things they were bound to jews had other things they were bound to and then the rabbis would say you are loosed from that you are not under obligation for that let me give you an example when they ask the question if you have a spouse and your spouse died are you free to marry yes you are no longer bound to that marriage relationship because your spouse has died now you are loosed so that's binding and leucine that the rabbis would do and one of the things that jesus was saying to peter and to the apostles was this i'm giving you the keys which we find out later on in the epistles that the pillar and the foundation of the church was the teachings of the apostles and when we have the word of god i'm either bound or loosed depending on god's word okay does that make sense it's uh if if god's word says you're free then there's freedom and by the way when it comes to that binding and loosing there are freedoms that we have in christ when we try to bind people according to our preferences or our convictions but it is not clear in scripture what we're doing is we're binding people becoming legalists saying you must follow me this is what i believe about kovid you must also believe that about kovid this is what i believe about the government you must also believe that about the government now i'm not saying that you shouldn't have convictions or you shouldn't follow those convictions but what i am saying is don't convolute it and say this is what jesus says okay you could say that today this afternoon by the way i am stoked i'm so excited guess where i'm going when this is when we're when we leave here i'm going to san francisco to the dodgers giants game and they are tied for first place and today the dodgers are going to go one game ahead okay now most of you guys want to throw things at me right now because you're giants fans i have the freedom as a christian to root for the dodgers now you could say you you're not a christian then you are not a follower of jesus because the dodgers are the most evil organization in all of baseball that's opinion now i could have my opinion and i could root for the dodgers and be excited and there are more serious things than sports by the way where i convolute it is say you as a christian must have these same convictions that i have on areas where you have been loosed from in eating meat and celebrating holidays and how you decide to to carry out certain aspects of your life and freedom most of the things we should push into romans 14 that fit into romans 14 the one person has this conviction happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves of but when i put my convictions upon you where there is freedom in christ now i've made a mistake so if a government ever contradicts scripture and contradicts what jesus says doesn't matter republican or democrat now i say no i have to follow the lord you are the christ the son of the living god you are jesus i am going to follow you no matter what the culture or the government says that's the crucial question do i follow jesus or popular opinion and and more importantly do i follow jesus or do i follow self because there are times that even as a christian my own selfish nature will take me away from the cross and following him that's why if we go to the next scripture verse 21 i think it is jesus predicts his death and resurrection it says from that time jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders chief priests and scribes be killed and raised the third day now remember he told them hey don't tell anyone that i'm the christ yet i don't want them to follow me for a political play or for their own purposes after the resurrection absolutely go and and make disciples of all nations right now don't tell them yet because i don't want them to follow me because i gave them bread and fish i don't want them to follow me just as the healer i don't want them to follow me just as the miracle worker i don't want them to follow me because they think i'm the magic genie in the sky that will do what i want what they want me to do when i go to the cross and they see what it really means to be a follower of jesus then yeah that message is going to go viral because then they'll understand what the christ is and what i've come for so from that time he showed them that he must suffer now it was the religious leaders that caused the suffering upon jesus he didn't suffer at the hands of robbers or criminals of the law but at the hands of religious people and also of political leaders and i understand that he has to die for our sins because there was a debt that needed to be paid but let me ask you a question why did he have to suffer in a moment we are going to partake of communion together to remember what jesus went through on our behalf but why suffering why could jesus not have just died a quick and even painless death why could jesus not have said i am going to die for your sins and i'm going to drink poison i'm going to die for your sins and they're going to behead me why the suffering why is that necessary william vastone a theologian he wrote a piece an article called the phenomenology of love and this is what it says all human beings even those who have been deprived of true love ultimately and consistently can tell the difference between fake and false love and authentic and true love how do you think people can tell the difference between authentic and true love versus fake and false love i'll tell you the way that you could tell the difference between true love and fake love is that true love is sacrificial if you are a parent and you really love your kids every parent that truly loves their children knows what it is like to suffer at times you suffer through heartaches they have you suffer through sleepless nights if you're a mom of toddlers right now or or babies you don't sleep much you suffer bad choices that they make you suffer rebellion you suffer through them not returning the love to you the way that you love them at times and those kids will be able to tell whether it's true authentic love by whether or not you still love them even when they are being total punks and by the way if you are younger don't think this is just for you because for those of you that are older in your 80s and 90s you realize that when you were a kid you were a punk and your parents showed you true love by sacrifice when we understand that love must suffer realize that we we really struggle with this because if we love and someone doesn't return that love why would we love them in fact it's the thing that causes us not to love others because we're afraid that we will not be loved in return let me tell you that one of the reasons why jesus is able to love in this way is that in himself in the trinity the father the son the holy spirit god is love do you realize if god were not a trinity a triune god he could not become love until he created beings to love now this is crazy i just want you to think about this for a second if god had no one else okay there was no one else for him to love and he were not a triune being he would need us or some other created beings in order to start loving because there's no one to love but in himself father son and spirit there is already a love that's there so in his nature his love for us is an outpouring of who he is that's deep i don't maybe for you guys you're like okay whatever move on but like for me that's like that is crazy deep that god doesn't need us to complete himself and if he needed us to complete himself he would be codependent for us for his own satisfaction and happiness and i need them to worship me but you know what because god is complete in and of himself even if i choose not to follow him he is still love and he could keep pouring out that love to us it is a love that is sacrificial now i understand though he must be he must suffer he must be killed the messiah would be cut off in daniel 9 26 in isaiah 53 and psalm 22 it talks about the method of his death even being foretold he must suffer he must be killed and then he must rise again and this is the part that the apostles really didn't hear he must rise again if you read uh josh how many of you have heard of josh mcdowell josh mcdowell and his son sean mcdowell are incredible theologians and apologists that explain things and and josh mcdowell had a book that i read when i was in high school i was 16 years old and it changed my life it was called evidence that demands a verdict and he said jesus from all historical accounts even outside of the bible in secular history existed and his life was so um it was so foundational it had such an impact that it changed the world it changed our dating system bc to a.d it's the reason why much of the world celebrates christmas and easter jesus existed but know this that when it comes to jesus rising again from the dead the resurrection of jesus makes all the difference in the world he's if jesus really said i am the way the truth and life no one comes to the father but through me if he wasn't telling the truth what does that make him makes him a liar and some people say well he was just a good man he really wasn't god he really wasn't the messiah well then if he was lying he's not a good person if he was lying then he died for that lie if he was lying then it goes against everything he ever taught and his disciples also died for that lie there's another possibility what if he really thought he was the son of god and he wasn't he was like david koresh you know he was like a cult leader and he really thought he was the son of god but he really wasn't we would call him a lunatic he was crazy he thought these things about himself but he really wasn't that person and there's a third option and the third option is that jesus is lord and he really is who he said that he is and the thing that really changes everything is the resurrection and if you study the resurrection as a forensic um detective or as an archaeologist or as a journalist or as a skeptic or as an atheist and you really study the resurrection you just might become one of the greatest apologists that that we know because most of them became christians because they tried to prove that the resurrection didn't happen the resurrection of jesus really shows that he is who he said that he is now we close this passage with peter's downfall from this incredible incredible um revelation that he has you're the christ the son of the living god but then when jesus said i must suffer and die and be delivered and then rise rise again peter took him aside in verse 22. he took jesus aside jesus come here for a second like i don't want to embarrass you in front of everyone else because i i'm really conscientious of your own reputation come here and then it says he began to rebuke him saying far be it from you lord this shall not happen to you you are the christ you're the messiah but you're supposed to blow doors on the romans you're not going to suffer you're not going to die we will fight for you the resistance is here and and i'm gonna be your captain i'm gonna be right next to you and so far be it from you this shall not happen to you peter loves jesus no jesus this this can't happen and he began to admonish jesus he he forbade jesus to suffer and die and yet jesus turned to peter and then he said in verse 23 get behind me satan now yeah that's like the southwest commercials want to get away like this is peter wants to get away at this point in time jesus says get behind me satan you are an offense to me for you are not mindful of the things of god but of the things of men in other words you're not thinking as god would think about this you're thinking as a mere mortal you're thinking about this in human terms peter's confession of faith quickly became a rebuke and we realize from what jesus says that satan was behind this you know what satan is behind today satan is behind at times when we see people that have disagreements with us and their enemies and our desire is kill and destroy you know who's behind that i'm letting you know satan's behind that because jesus says love your enemies jesus the one that we follow says by your love and your good works and your truth they could come to this truth jesus says the way that they are going to come is through the prophets think about stephen when stephen gets killed by religious leaders paul the apostle being one of them known as saul of tarsus at the time they're throwing rocks at at um at stephen and stephen says father forgive them for they do not know what they do and he reflects the same as jesus and it causes saul of tarsus this incredible witness then jesus meets him on the road to damascus it's important that we don't think that following jesus means that we dominate everything i don't know what's going to happen to america this is the great democratic experiment and in the great democratic experiment from all of history up until the time of the united states of america there have been kings and dictators and and there hasn't been a democracy like we have but will we make it through i i don't know america's not mentioned in prophecy and if we think that in order for jesus to rule that we have to quote unquote win then we make a mistake looking for the wrong kingdom now i am not saying this because don't just take that sound by and say he's saying not to vote or not to post what we think or what we our convictions about democracy and what we think about values no voice those things speak those things share those things but love people who disagree with you and don't turn on them the way that they treat you because if you do that you may win the argument but you've lost the person and jesus is calling us jesus says the son of man has come to seek and to save those who are lost that's our mission it's a search and rescue mission to reach people by the love of jesus christ that's why jesus says in verse 24 slide 21 if anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself take up his cross and follow me for whoever desires to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it as i close the idols that compete with dying to self we have the idols of power the idols of approval the idols of comfort and convenience the idols of security the idols of pleasure it's not that any of one of these in and of themselves is wrong i i hope that we have the power to make some good happen i hope and pray that there are good people that are superintendents of schools and governors of states and presidents of the nation that we we yes use that for good approval i want to show good works and love people so that they approve so that they ask why do you do these good works i want comfort i like comfort i like to be comfortable i like convenience i like having a smartphone i like security i want i don't want anyone to break through my doors i don't want anyone to to uh take things that aren't theirs i i like pleasure pleasure is a good thing it's a gift of god any of these things that is elevated to the place where i won't die to self and i won't worship jesus that becomes an idol and sometimes worshipping jesus means i need to give up power to someone else by loving them it means my approval i need to not care what they think about me i need to give up my comfort jesus left heaven to come to earth and his convenience security there are times that we need to take risks in order to invite people in in hospitality and to love them we need to take um we need to guide us off when pleasure becomes the thing that we follow more than following jesus and so as we come to this place of understanding jesus's kingdom we'll go to the last slides now go uh one more assuredly i say to you there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the son of man coming in his kingdom and then the next slide the kingdom without the king jesus is coming back and by the signs of the way that the world is going it sure seems like he's coming back in my lifetime and by looking at the way that things are going it sure seems like he's closer now than he ever has been and and that's a guarantee but we have to be careful that we don't want the kingdom without the king kingdom without the king is what if you read last week is happening at harvard do you realize that the new chaplain of harvard university is an atheist at one of the ivy league's highest schools in all of the world harvard the chaplain is an atheist and what he said is we still want some of the values of of what historical christian faiths have wanted you know what they want they want joy they want peace they they want love it's kingdom without the king and we cannot have kingdom without the king it's our worship of jesus and dying to self that causes the without the king without jesus what happens when someone doesn't submit to my authority and doesn't fall in line now they have to be subjugated and pressed down if we go to the next slide the queen of england is there's so much pomp and circumstance in ceremony honor given to the queen there's a song here comes the queen and everyone sings flags are put out everyone stands in a certain way we go to the next slide this is the queen and her husband who just passed away recently the queen of england my fear is that as christians we treat jesus like the queen of england who has a lot of honor and pomp and circumstance of worship but not a lot of authority and power the queen doesn't make decisions in england anymore she doesn't say what their economic status is going to be or what they are going to do as far as their borders or how they should deal with conflict she is a ceremonial queen that sets up there where everyone gives their adherence to by ceremony but doesn't have authority the only way that we worship jesus is that we worship him in spirit and in truth and as we worship him in spirit and truth i'm going to have the worship team come up here the gospel of the kingdom which we are going to get to next week is what we are going to celebrate and commemorate in our time of communion god of heaven jesus himself came from heaven to earth to put aside all of his privileges as god in order to come to a poor community in israel to be born in bethlehem to grow up in a city called nazareth that people would say can anything good come out of nazareth he lived as an obscure carpenter he was rejected by the people of his own city his own siblings didn't believe in him he was mocked he was spit upon he was tortured he was beaten he was scourged they put a crown of thorns upon his head and that crown of thorns those thorns came because of adam and eve and the fall that in the curse he said thorns and thistles the ground will produce and jesus took that crown of thorns and had it placed and pressed upon his head they gave him a purple robe they gave him a scepter they hit him in the face they put a bag over his head and they mocked him and they said there is your king pilate who asked the people do you want me to release jesus to you or barabbas and they all said we want barabbas and pilate presents jesus before them and he says behold the man above jesus's head there's a sign jesus king of the jews and then people say well no he said that don't put that there he said what i've written i've written the king has come to die on a cross for our sins but the king is going to come again and jesus is going to come again and say who were those faithful followers who followed me even to the denial of self who were the ones that were willing to deny self pick up the cross and follow me see following jesus is not just a mental exercise of saying oh yeah i believe that jesus was a real person and that he died and rose again it means i give my life to him and i surrender and i say i want to follow you it is what our brothers and sisters right now in afghanistan are doing because if the taliban finds out that they are followers of jesus they will be executed to be a follower of jesus doesn't mean that we dominate the world it means that we serve others and we love it means that we died us off and say jesus i don't deserve i don't deserve this gift of your life for me this great exchange where my sin is put upon you and your righteousness is put upon me and if anyone here or listening online would want to become a follower of jesus like the thief on the cross you could do it in an instant but the following of jesus is a lifetime endeavor in an instant the faith comes and you could be regenerated born again of the holy spirit by calling upon jesus to save you to rescue you to change you to make you more like him to be rooted and grounded in love rather than hate you can't change yourself you can't make yourself unselfish you can't make yourself un um unhateful jesus changes you from the inside out and if you would submit your life to him today you can become a follower of jesus he loves you he came to die for you so that you would know that love is authentic it's not a fake love it is a sacrificial willing to die for you love and if anyone today would like to become a follower of jesus i'm going to pray a prayer that is just saying jesus here i am jesus i want you in my life jesus i don't want to live life without you and you could become a follower of jesus today and then we're going to pray and partake of communion because if you are a follower of jesus you know what this is doing this is saying today jesus i'm still following this is saying jesus i'm not perfect and i've messed up maybe i've messed up so much that i feel condemned but because of what this signifies that you came to die for me i'm not earning it i'm receiving it as a gift and today let this be the beginning of this endeavor to faithfully follow jesus as lord and savior so would you pray with me praying as christians for those that don't know the lord if you've never received christ as your lord and savior would you pray this prayer with me jesus i need you in my life [Music] i have doubts and struggles [Music] i have unbelief but yet lord i have belief and i have just enough to say i need you and i ask that you would forgive me for my sin for the way that i've treated others the way that i've treated you god it is hard for me at times to even comprehend that you actually love me [Music] but because of jesus coming into our world to die for my sins i believe i pray that you would fill me with your spirit [Music] i pray that you would forgive me and help me to follow you help me to learn about you in jesus name and for those of us that have already followed the lord we have made that decision to follow jesus then today as we sing [Music] recommit afresh to say jesus i'm still following jesus help me to die to self the idols that so easily compete for my heart and i want you to lead me fill me again with your spirit in jesus name amen what we are going to do is we are going to sing then we are going to partake of the bread and cup together so hold on to this and then we're going to partake of communion as we close our service but let's let's sing to the lord and by the way this singing to god is resistance to self it's saying god make these lyrics true of me i'm resisting my selfishness and i'm choosing to worship you so let's worship the lord together my life is [Music] me [Music] cause you made this [Music] is your glory is so beautiful [Music] and the heartbeat of my life is to worship in your life your glory is so beautiful your glory is so beautiful [Music] is [Music] you make this [Music] [Music] your glory is so beautiful i fall onto [Music] is your glory is so beautiful [Music] oh [Music] jesus you are sing that out glory glory hallelujah [Music] jesus [Music] [Music] jesus [Music] glory hallelujah [Music] [Music] oh [Music] jesus [Music] is [Applause] know [Music] glory glory hallelujah jesus [Music] glory glory [Music] jesus glory glory hallelujah jesus [Music] [Music] jesus is [Music] jesus [Music] jesus you are [Music] when jesus when his hour had come he sat down with the twelve apostles with him and he said it is with fervent desire that i have desire to eat this passover with you before i suffer for i say to you i will no longer eat of it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of god and he took the cup and gave thanks and said take this and divide it among yourselves for i say to you i will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of god comes and he took bread and gave thanks and broke it gave it to them saying this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me likewise he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for you as we partake of communion together if you have never received christ as your savior you prayed that prayer earlier then in a moment i'm just going to invite you to stand or to raise your hand wherever you are what that's doing is it's declaring i want to follow jesus and and you know it we are so individualized in western culture that it's an individual thing but you know what he calls us to follow him publicly and this is a way to do that also for those of you that you have a special need maybe you are sick maybe you're struggling in your faith there is someone that you are praying for then by faith i'm going to ask you to either stand or if you're able to stand or to raise your hand and what we want to do when we partake of communion as a body is to remember one another to pray for each other as well so if you would take the the bread and the cup you just peel that thin layer off the top and there's that wafer the bread there and then the second is that foil and that's that's sealing the cup there and you could take that off and if anyone would desire to ask for prayer as we partake would you stand wherever you are just go ahead and stand or put your hand up because we need each other it's so important that we pray for one another that there's a thank you for standing that is just such a beautiful and bold step of faith we love you god loves you he sees you he sees what you're going through anyone else you know if you just need the lord's touch today you're struggling just god would you draw near to me would you be present in my life amen praise god we want to we're i'm standing with you i am standing with you today because i absolutely need the lord's touch there are some things that i'm facing right now that this message spoke to me today jesus loves me he loves you amen anyone else all right let's pray father for those that have stood lord you know for those that have stood for the first time thank you god for your goodness as they partake of communion today i pray that you'd fill them with your spirits your presence father for those that are standing i know um so many of the stories and things that are happening in in their lives and some of them i don't know but god you know i i just thank you god you know us you see us god we are seen we are heard we are loved by you we just thank you god as we partake of communion together we remember jesus that you suffered for us that you died for us and that that true suffering shows that that love is authentic we thank you that you rose again that you really did verify and show us that you really are who you said you are in jesus name let's partake of the bread and the cup continue to worship [Music] if you're not already standing can we just stand and worship god for what he's done god and what he's going to do i praise you god [Music] was [Music] [Music] of is curse upon [Music] my final breath again [Music] broken [Music] the ground began to shake the stone was rolled away his perfect love could [Music] has [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] where is [Music] his glory [Music] is [Music] [Applause] we sing hallelujah we sing hallelujah the lamb has overcome we sing hallelujah [Music] we sing hallelujah [Music] we sing hallelujah the lamb has overcome we sing hallelujah we sing hallelujah we sing hallelujah [Music] we sing hallelujah we sing hallelujah we sing hallelujah [Music] [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] is [Music] [Music] good morning church you can go ahead and be seated my name is dana i help with our sunday school and how edifying to be together and so good for those who are online to get to be with us in spirit i have the blessing to pray for our offering there's lots of different ways these days to give you can give online you can give in that little box over there at the table you can text the the number that's up on the screen but of course that's the blessing we have to give and trust the lord with what he's provided for us so let's bow and ask for the lord's blessing lord we bow before you because you are the only holy god and you are good and you are faithful and we can trust you and you provide for all of our needs beyond what we could ask so as we have the opportunity today and throughout the week to give financially to our church lord god we ask that you would help us to steward those funds in a way that brings you glory and that accomplishes your will thank you for your provision in jesus name amen all right now we also have some fun stuff going on here at regen kind of like the fun kids we had running around here helping didn't they do a good job yeah and so the first thing i would like to share with you is for our teenagers out there our local fun boardwalk does a big christian program a big bash at the boardwalk and that's coming up this friday so if you have a teenager or you are a teenager invite your friends who don't know the lord and get signed up you can see the website that's up on the screen and what we would like for you to do is to sign up and you want to do it right away make sure that there's a spot for you and then let pastor reeve know so that we know how many are coming in our group and if you are a family and you want to participate it's going to be a lot of fun you can sign up as well they're going to camp they're going to feed you overnight at the boardwalk and you get to play and have fun they're gonna have a bunch of christian bands it'll be a really terrific time and if that's not your gig okay but you're married and you would like to attend our marriage ministry this saturday upcoming at six o'clock uh we're going to be having our marriage ministry gathering so you if you'd like to be part of that you can come and get more information at the table and then but wait there's more we also have the pregnancy resource center walk slash run for life did you get all of it it's okay if you didn't it's on the screen but uh each year returning live this year we have the blessing of our church as well as many other churches and individuals around our county to participate in this walk to raise money for our local pregnancy resource center and i have my shirt on from years past so that's very exciting but if you would like to be part of the walk you can go get your sign up paper sign up at the table over here with the little box on it and what you do is you say hey i'm gonna walk for this good cause and you go to your friends and your neighbors and you tell them about the prc ask if they would uh sponsor you financially and this is how we raise funds for the pregnancy resource center too to get out in there into the community um with the resources that folks need so if you would like to be part of that if you've never done it do it this year if you've never sponsored somebody then sponsor somebody this year um because that's one way we can use the funds the lord has given us to get the good news out there okay and then our um last thing that we want to tell you about has flown away in the wind what's our next slide oh of course how could i forget life groups if you haven't who has signed up for a life group raise your hand oh good all right so we see some hands that were up and some that were not so if you would still like to sign up for some life groups we have them all throughout the week i think the first one is starting tomorrow go over to the table get signed up at a time that works for you and your family so we can keep growing together okay who's going to do it you got to do it all right now i also have you're wondering who are these two beautiful young people here these are brother and sister caleb and abby and they are going to pray for our service to end and they are going to pray for our meal that you have been smelling which is so good okay go ahead dear god thank you for what we have learned today in church and thank you for everyone out there and help people to walk with you for all the days of their life jesus name amen dear god thank you for the food and and the people who made it and and help this food to nourish our bodies and help it to give us the energy to do stuff to to glorify you in jesus name amen amen all right and so once again it's so good to be together you guys can head on over to the food and enjoy some fellowship together all right [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: ReGeneration Church

Views: 128

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: pIhTl6ER_c4

Length: 118min 55sec (7135 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 06 2021