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The Sermon for Sunday, August 23rd, the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
The Lessons: Psalm 138; Isaiah 51:1-6; Matthew 16:13-20
The Text: Matthew 16:15-17
INTRODUCTION
Poet Elizabeth Goldring developed blindness as an adult. According to writers Ron Kotulak and Jon Van, one day a doctor was testing her eyes with a laser device called a scanning laser ophthalmoscope when Goldring by chance noticed something important. As the laser scanned her eye, she could “see” certain images.
Further experiments were done by Robert Webb, the inventor of the laser device. Goldring found that the laser device was able to project on the retina of her eyes, faces and words that she could see.
Based on these experiments, researchers believe many blind people have parts of their retinas that may be able to sense visual information projected directly onto their retinas by a laser.
After the experiments Goldring said, “That was the first time in several months that I had seen a word, and for a poet, that’s an incredible feeling.”
Just as Elizabeth Goldring could not see without the assistance of this laser device projecting words and images into her eyes, there are many truths we cannot see unless God reveals them to us by his Spirit. We are blind to spiritual things apart from revelation.[1]
The Lord Jesus Christ himself revealed so much about God. He said this about one purpose of his coming:
For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
(John 9:39, KJV)
He came to give sight to those who do not see, so that they might see and perceive the truth of salvation by faith in him. For someone to even come to faith in Christ, God the Father leads that person to him, and the Holy Spirit gives revelation of who Jesus Christ really is. As the Lord Jesus himself said:
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.
(John 6:44-45, KJV)
MATTHEW 16:15-17: THE REVELATION OF GOD ABOUT JESUS WAS GIVEN TO PETER
Here, then, in today’s Gospel Lesson, when Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God, he is confessing his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that faith arose from the truth that God the Father had revealed to him. Jesus emphasizes that human beings had not revealed to Peter the truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, but God the Father in heaven.
Now we often read this passage rejoicing that Peter was the first of the twelve Apostles to make this confession of faith, but we must not miss the truth that God had revealed to Peter that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. I say we must not forget this truth, even in these times, when the Bible is with us and easily accessible, when churchgoing Christians may be tempted to take their faith for granted.
I was raised an Anglican, but only when I was seventeen, in twelfth grade, did I realize that an intellectual assent to the creeds and doctrines of the Church was not good enough. The Lord Jesus Christ requires a total commitment of one’s life to him and obedience to Him as Lord. This means a relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ. After that commitment, my life changed completely. My career decision had to be what the Lord wanted and was calling me to follow. To confess Jesus as Christ and Lord, Son of God, is not just an intellectual decision. It is the beginning of a lifelong journey of discipleship. You are no longer in control of your life’s direction. You must submit all to God.
Consider the confession of Peter. Peter’s confession of Jesus’ messiahship and divinity as Son of God was made in the context of pagan surroundings. Caesarea Philippi itself was a significant place for St. Peter to have made the first confession of Christian faith. It was a city twenty miles north of the Sea of Galilee, and at the base of Mt. Hermon, and the location of one of the largest springs feeding the Jordan River. Plentiful water made the district very fertile and suitable for religious worship. Many pagan temples were built in this area during the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Known as Baal Hermon and Baal Gad in the Old Testament period, the site was later called Panias after the Greek god, Pan, who was worshipped there. Beginning in the third century, sacrifices were thrown into the cave, which was the Grotto of Pan, from which the spring flowed. Pan was the half-man, half-goat god of fright (hence “panic”) and of nature, fields and forests, and he is often shown playing the flute.
Against this background of paganism, St. Peter proclaimed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God. The victory over demons and the bondage they bring begins with confessing one’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Of course, Peter had to come to believe in the resurrection and to express his obedience to the Lord by following his commands to feed his lambs and feed his sheep (John 21). But his confession of faith in this passage shows that he had advanced beyond the silence of the other Apostles when Jesus asked them, “But whom say ye that I am?” (verse 15, KJV). Peter took the lead in confessing his faith in the Lord, and Jesus made it clear that God the Father had revealed to Peter the truth of who Jesus is.
CONCLUSION
What we must all realize is that our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ which we affirmed before many witnesses at our confirmation, or at our baptism, if we were baptized as adults, carries with it the obligation of lifelong discipleship and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[1] p.457, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers and Writers from Craig Larson and Leadership Journal, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2002. Second Printing, 2008.