Matthew 16

Imagine Jesus walks into the room, right up to you, and asks, "Who do you say that I am?" How would you answer him? Let's sit in the shoes of Peter and discuss Matthew 16.

@klarckorver
@bobbiekorver

@erclosangeles
www.erc.la
info@erc.la

Transcript

[Music] So we're going to look at Matthew 16 today. We're going to talk about some of the scriptures that stick out to us at the end. We're going to talk about how this actually does play a role and not only happens, well, not only influences what's going to happen tomorrow for us, but also the weeks, the months, the years to come. So we're looking at Matthew 16 and this begins with a really funny story. We read this and we were dying laughing, like trying to envision ourselves in this story. Right. It's cracking up. Yeah, so there's this demand for a sign, but then they get to talking about yeast, the disciples and Jesus. Like yeast isn't the stuff that's in bread. And so we'll keep going on, but it literally, I want to read verse 5. "When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take the bread." Matthew, thanks for including that. I know. And so, interesting, be careful, Jesus said to them, be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the desangesties. And so what's so funny? In verse 7 they're going, "Oh man, he's talking about this because we didn't bring any bread." It's because we didn't bring any bread. "Dah, Andrew, you mourn, you forgot to bread." What? On earth. This cracks me up. I'm sure Matthew writing this, they're probably in heaven laughing because it's probably some dig at one of the other Pharisees. Right, it's an inside joke. Yeah, disciples, and every time it's read on earth, they're like, "I remember Andrew forgot the bread." Totally forgot it. Just not going ahead. Because it wasn't following, you know, the feeding of the 4,000. It's just practical. You guys, remember the bread on the boat? Yeah, don't forget to bring the bread. But why that kind of stuck out is because... For your keto diet, I don't know. Oh my goodness. I don't know what they got going on. Stop it. I know, if it's sourdough, I will take it. Anything else? You leave that bread. Avocado toast and Bob's sourdough bread, don't get between her and it. You guys, yeah, okay. Let's keep going. That's good, yeah. So why it was so funny and why it was just stuck out to us is because Jesus uses it as a teaching moment too. And so it was confusing, yes, because they're like, "Wait, what?" But really, he's making a significant point here about the yeast in bread and how, even though it's a small part of it, how it can spread and, you know... And really, it's a main part of making bread. But anyway, he's likening that to false teaching and how it can spread. Yeah, false teaching. How it gets in, infiltrates, and it just causes problems. Right. And so why I was like, "Oh, that's so interesting." Like, thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Matthew, for including it. And thank you, Jesus, for saying that. And so why I was like, "Oh, thank you, Jesus, for saying that," is because we, in life, all the time, can use these mundane moments in life for teaching moments. And that's exactly what Jesus does here and all over, in the parables and all over the Gospels too. And so even, you know, tree roots, bath time, making dinner. Sorry, are you talking about examples that we use for... Yeah, but in just returning it and turning those things into teachable moments when we have a Holy Spirit-inspired moment to make it. To maybe learn something ourselves, maybe teach something to the kids. And so that was one of those moments for us. For sure. So we were talking about, you know, a tree root or a dead firefly or ant or spiders or... We were just talking about death the other day because we saw a cobweb and some kind of insect got eaten or wrapped up at least. And they're like, "He's gone forever." And I'm like, "Yeah, let me talk to you about heaven." Right now, natural transition. It was a beautiful moment though, like, "Wow, look at this intricate web. Look at this design. Look at..." And then we found a butterfly. That's what it was. And then it was. And so we actually have... we kept the butterfly and we're going to keep it. Maybe like dry it and put it in a frame because that was just a beautiful moment where we're looking at the intricacy of how God created. And it was just sitting there right in our lawn on the dirt. It was. So what, geese, butterflies, insects, bath time. Yeah. Going to the bathroom. Shoot, you name it. Korva household. Oh my... If we can talk about Jesus, we will. That's right. Okay, well you were talking about a little later in the chapter. Yeah, I like... Later on, Peter confesses Christ and Jesus asks this question to them. He says, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They give some roundabout answer and then verse 15, he says, "What about you? Who do you say that I am?" And so of course, Simon Peter jumps in and quickly answers, but I guess as I read this story, I felt the Holy Spirit was encouraging me to sit in the story of myself. Like, Clark, if you're sitting there and Jesus comes in the room and asks you, Clark, "Who do you say that I am?" How would I answer that? Yeah. Obviously, you're God. You're the Savior. You were a carpenter. You're gracious, but I let myself sit in that and try to let my mind just go. And go, "Who...?" Right now, with my emotions, my circumstances, my thinking, life, my reality, who would I say that you are right now, God? And for me, looking ahead to tomorrow, I'm saying, "God, you're sovereign. You're a creator. You over everything." I look at the scriptures that talk about how God is sovereign over even the elected leaders, which has baffled all of us at some point in time in history. South Korea, North Korea, America, Canada, Mexico, you're like, "How is that dude? How is that woman a leader? God, are you serious?" And God's saying, "Yeah, I'm sovereign over all of this." And God's merciful. He's gracious. His past grace, His present grace, His future grace. And yeah, so I don't know, Bob, if Jesus walked in this room right now and says, "Bobby Jean, who do you say that I am? How would you answer it?" Well, I think of you like, "Hey, what's up, Jesus? Just talk to you this morning five minutes ago." That's right. I think when I sat in that, I think the huge reason it's significant is because that's intimate to me. And so what's intimate to me in 2020 is that God is always inviting us to learn more and to know Him more. But in 2020, specifically for me, one of the qualities that I've just really fallen in love all over again about God is that He is consistent, that He is not a God of chaos, that He is a God of peace and a God of order. And in a year that seems like there's just been one thing, another thing, another thing, totally chaotic, lots of disorders, I've found that I am just so grateful for God and His faithfulness and His consistency that He is who He is and it's who He has been and it's who He will be. Another thing, we talk about the Prince of Peace often around Christmas time and that's kind of a popular verse in Isaiah that will come up. But I really feel like that's just been, God's been a faithful companion to me in being the Prince of Peace this year too. And that's another way I feel like He's revealed Himself a little bit more to me in this season is just peace in the midst of chaos, peace because I'm here, I'm with you. And so what we're talking about though is so these qualities and these relationships that we, this relationship that we have with the Lord and these qualities that we know and love about Him really should be basing how we're living, how we're thinking, how we're living. And so that's kind of one of the questions that we move to. Yeah, so first, who do you see that I am? And then once we answer that, look at how we're living and see if it lines up. Right. Because if you, if I really believe that God is sovereign, I should not have a lot of anxiety regarding the election. I believe that God's working over it, in it, through it, that God's good. It's okay. You know, when there's chaos, when there's anarchy, when there's looting, when there's riots and you have the Prince of Peace who's over this, it should give us some peace in the midst of all the frustration because I get that. We're frustrated too. But how am I living? And I look back, does that line up with who I believe God is? So we invite you listeners, you viewers to ask yourself that same question. Imagine Jesus comes in and says, "Hey, who do you say that I am? How would you answer that question?" And how does it line up with the way you're living? And so kind of keep going here. We'll wrap up. But looking at verse 19, after Peter does confess Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior, Jesus says, "I'll give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth, we bound in heaven. And whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." And then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was in fact a Christ. And so then Jesus goes on to predict his death and he tells him, "You're going to have to pick up your cross and follow me." And you know, we're not the apostles, we're not right in the Bible, but I feel like the keys have in fact been handed by the Spirit to the church. Because the church, we're God's game plan. We're His mission. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father. He's in heaven. And at the Great Commission, He said, "You've got to go and keep doing everything I've taught you, everything I've showed you, teach other people, my teachings, and you're my plan. You're the Spirit is going to use the church as the vehicle to bring in the kingdom of God. Or as Matthew will say, the kingdom of heaven right now." And so that puts a great deal of weight and importance and reverence, I think, in this passage. And so, I don't know, do you have anything you would add to that? I think we just kind of process, like, why don't we do this? Like when our circumstance is difficult or when we're just in this routine where we're grinding and we're going to work and we're doing our daily life. Why aren't we living with the authority that we believe we have? Why aren't we believing the things that we've confessed to believe but then remembering and living them obediently? Why don't we? And so we talked about that just with it being too risky. We don't want to have hard conversations with people that might come against us. One of the other things we threw out to you was, yeah, we don't want to deal with other people's opinions because then how would we answer why we're doing things or it might be too risky. So we talked about Matthew and how Matthew literally left his tax collector booth. And he walked with Jesus to follow him. And so, verse 24 right now is talking about, "Okay, well if you confess Jesus his Lord and you're believing who I am and that confession should affect how you live, well I'm asking you to die to yourself. I'm asking you to surrender." And so we don't want to do that. I think for me, kind of being transparent here, one of the greatest learnings during this COVID season and then transitioning into the election as you have the election, which most people have an opinion, whether it's educated or not. COVID, people have thoughts on that and there's a wide spectrum. And some of the other hot topic issues right now, whether it's the Supreme Court stuff or it's racial tension, whether it's, you name it, there's tension there, is my balance of the fear of man and the fear of God. Because if I really believe that God is sovereign, He is Lord, He is the Prince of Peace, He's gracious, He's merciful, He's been so kind to me. That my ultimate allegiance is to Him, not a political party. It's looking out for the well-being of my neighbor. It's trying to live out the life that Jesus has lived himself and has called us to live. And early on in COVID and with the election stuff rising, I had in my mind friends, people from our church, like, okay, if I preach this, I know how they're going to respond. I know how they're going to respond. And the Holy Spirit convicting me going, "Clark, you're going to follow me. If you're going to die to me, if you're going to pick up your cross and, you know, like Matthew, like Peter, leave it all and follow me. I want you to care what I think. Don't worry about them. You're mindful of them and you try to love them and shepherd them, but you're focused on me, on my kingdom, and my way, and stick to that. And what hurts is oftentimes that's the middle road and you get shot at from both sides. And that's where it's like, oh man, so if I believe that God is sovereign, He's given us this authority. He's given the keys of the kingdom to the church. Now is the time for the church to rise up. And so if we're going to transition to the election, and we'll end here is, who do you say that I am? If I believe God's sovereign, if I believe God's gracious and He's kind and He's good, then I have to live into that tomorrow on election day. And then there's a good chance we're not even going to find out much tomorrow. I don't know. But the results as they come in throughout the remainder of the week, I have to remember that God's handed the keys over to the church. This is who we believe He is. Now we're to be representatives of His to the world. Whether we like the results or not, you know, it's like fear God. And you're mindful of man, but you don't fear them. But he's nowhere near the level you're aware of God and His reverence and His power. Do that kind of make sense? Yeah. Well, I think to so many people, you know, we want to be informed. And so so many people, it's like, I want to be informed, so I'm going to watch my news. I want to be informed, so I'm going to read the paper. I want to be informed, so I'm going to go home and read all these articles that my friends have emailed me. I want to be informed, so I'm going to have all these tough conversations. Those are good things. I want to be informed, so I'm going to read the written word of God so I can be informed. Yeah. I want to be informed.