“Before The Cross”

Matthew 16:13-21 –“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

    From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

    I personally like to think of the period of time that we call Lent as a “journey to the Cross.”  It begins on Ash Wednesday and takes us through Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and of course, to the destination of our journey, Easter.  It’s kind of like taking a road trip; As we drive along toward our destination, we focus on many different things and several landmarks along the way. That’s what Lent is like. It’s a time of turning our focus to the many things that took place along the way to the Cross.

    It is also a time of considering “self-sacrifice” during a time when we remember the greatest sacrifice ever given, when Jesus laid down his life as a final sacrifice - once and for all. This journey has been taken by countless thousands of people and preachers - in countless thousands of ways - yet it never loses its power to transform lives.

    Preceding these verses, Jesus had been teaching and preaching and healing and performing miracles…But, here in the 21^st. verse - which is where I really want us to focus our attention - Jesus turns his attention on his disciples and it says; “From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples what must take place in the coming days”…He begins to explain what his ministry is all about…He begins to explain the “Who”, What, Where, Why, and How” of what was going to happen. In other words, he tells them a few of the landmarks they should watch for on this journey to Jerusalem.

    If you read ahead to chapter 17, it says that 6 days later Jesus took them “up a high mountain” and, we have the story of the transfiguration. Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him up a little higher, and it tells us that they witnessed Jesus in his “pre-earthly” glory. Jesus has a little rap session with Moses and Elijah; who, by the way, have been dead for a few hundred years… And then, a cloud comes down upon them, and a voice comes from out of the cloud saying; “This is my Son whom I love, with Him I am well pleased, Listen to Him!” …What would you do or say at a time like this?  It says that the disciples “fell face down to the ground, TERRIFIED!” …No kidding!  I would have been like the cowardly lion or the tin man in the Wizard of Oz…You would have heard my bones rattling from fear!  But it says that Jesus came and touched them… Now, I don’t know about you, but if someone would have touched me at such a moment, I would take off like a rocket!

    The Disciples - Peter in particular - made a confession back in verse 16 of our text, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” and, now they witness what they had confessed with their mouths. But there was a problem. In chapter 17 verse 22 it says; “When they came together in Galilee, he said to them again; “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life” …They didn’t get it.  In Chapter 20 verse 17 it says; “He took the 12 disciples aside and said to them; “We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day, he will be raised to life” …They still didn’t get it. You see, what they had confessed with their mouths, and heard with their ears, had not yet reached their hearts! The heart is the true “seat of understanding.” They didn’t understand, because when the time came, and these things began to happen…they all ran!  And, Peter even denied knowing him at all!

    Something happened that turned their fear into boldness; Something happened that turned their grief into joy; something happened that finally sunk in and went directly to their heart! That something was the resurrection of Jesus!

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A lack of knowledge.

Romans 1:21-32  – “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

    The problem is a lack of knowledge. The problem is that we do not know God. Whereas some parts of Scripture emphasize the “fear of God,” Romans emphasizes a knowledge of God. “My people are destroyed from lack of know-ledge.” (Hosea 4:6)

    When we lack knowledge about God, we do not – and in fact, cannot -  develop a relationship with Him. Our relationships are built upon the foundation of knowledge. A lot of marriages fail because the relationship is just based on emotions or the satisfaction of needs. To really love someone, you really have to know them. The Israelites did not have an intimate knowledge  of God nor a relationship with God. Allow me to list six things that resulted:

When we lack a knowledge of God there will be: #1. NO FAITHFULNESS. 

• The people were struggling with their faithfulness to God because of their lack of knowledge. As God’s chosen people looked around them, they saw the pagans worshiping. Pagan worship looked fun to them; it was loose and just about anything was allowed. There were really no rules. This looked good to the people of God; they constantly struggled with Baal worship and other forms of idolatry. (What would you compare that to today?)

    We will struggle with being faithful to God because we will have no foundation for our faithfulness. If you do not know God, what is it that keeps you in line?  Hebrews 11:6 – “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” How can we know, much less please or even desire to please someone with whom we have no relationship?

#2. When we lack an intimate relationship with God there will be:  NO KINDNESS.

LUKE 6:27 "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” How many of us want to do this? How many of us want to be kind to people who do not like us? Jesus told us that if we are good to those who are good to us, then we are no better than the pagans who do the same.

    Do you find it hard to be kind to some people? As you grow closer to Jesus, you will find that being kind to people becomes so much easier. If we are not kind, we will not attract people to Jesus. I remember the story that Jesus told of the Good Samaritan. Remember, a man was injured, the priest and the Levite walked right by the man, but the Samaritan stopped and showed kindness to the man. The punch line was that the Jews hated the Samaritans so this story really struck a nerve with them… What if we told this story about a black man? When people in our community need kindness and compassion, I hope that it is God’s people who are there. Showing kindness will go a long way with people. One of the benefits of knowing God is that we will start seeing people the way that Jesus saw them because we as we grow in our knowledge and love for Jesus, we are “being transformed into His image.” (2 Cor 3:18)

#3. When we lack an intimate relationship with God there will be: IGNORANCE. 

This passage says that the people did not have knowledge of God, this is ignorance. Ignorance breeds even more ignorance. Ignorance is dangerous. If we are ignorant of something, we will believe anything about it. The Constitution of the United States is a good example. How many of you know that the Constitution speaks about the separation of church and state? It does have that phrase in it right? No, it does not! But, we have a whole nation of people who think that is in there, so based on that assumption; we are allowing the ACLU and other political organizations to rid us of God in our society. When we are ignorant of God’s word, we will not know when we are being sold a bill of goods. 

    What if the church buys into the thought that all roads lead to heaven, so there is really no difference in the different religions and that doctrinal differences mean nothing? When the people are ignorant, then they we believe everything except the truth!

#4 When we lack a knowledge of God there will be: A LIFE OF SIN.

Ignorance of God and His word leads to a life of sin. Notice the things mentioned here in the opening scripture…They are all direct violations of God’s Law. The “People of God” were being swept away by the sinful life-styles of the pagans around them. Is this happening today? Why? We have allowed the teachings of the world to overtake the church. 1 John 2:15 - “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” We have fallen too much in love with the world to keep it out of us.

#5 When we lack a knowledge of God there will be: NO REPROOF.

Romans 1:32 “although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them”. We have a whole nation that wonders why things are get-ting so bad socially, and when we tell them why, we are intolerant, narrow-minded, bigots. There are absolutes even if over 70% of the people say there are none. If God says it is wrong, it is wrong for everyone.

Finally,#6 When we lack an knowledge of God FUTURE GENERATIONS ARE AFFECTED.

Vs 6-7 Ignorance breeds ignorance. God says to the Israelites that He was going to turn from the children of the people because the more they had, the more they sinned. We are raising a society of people who know little to nothing about God and we will pay and are paying the price for that. The nation of Israel suffered because one generation did not teach the other. If we – who sit in the church lack a knowledge or relationship with God, how in the world will we teach our children, and how will they teach their children? Let me say it again; “My people perish from a lack of knowledge”. (Hosea 4:6)