Tag Archives: power

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Rock Solid Clarity

Sermon from Matthew 16:13-19

https://vimeo.com/450861566

Several years ago, I ran for bishop of the Diocese of Central Florida. I was relieved not to win, but during that season when my name was in the running, I met with a leadership consultant named Bobb Beall. He told me something I’ll never forget:

“Leaders struggle in general with the issue of fog. The higher you go up in leadership, the foggier it gets because everything gets more complicated. Chaos is seen for what it is, and the uncertainties of life mount. What people need from leaders is clarity.”

Bobb Beall

That stuck with me because I connected with the idea of fog. Fog is something that can be debilitating when it hits us in life, and we are going through an extremely foggy season right now, with partisan politics, the Covid pandemic, the inability for Christians to meet together, and the economic state of uncertainty. It’s hard to know what to do with all of this, but the gospel offers us clarity.

Jesus offers us three aspects of clarity: clarity of our confession, clarity of our identity, and clarity of our calling.

One of the most important questions we can ever answer is “Who is Jesus?” Jesus asked his disciples what the word on the street was about who he was, and the answers were generally positive, but they were pretty scattered. So Jesus challenged the disciples to find clarity on their own belief of who he was, and Peter offered it plainly.

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Matthew 16:13-16

Peter’s confession contains a few important elements. First, Peter said Jesus was the Christ, which affirms that Jesus is the Messiah that had been prophesied. The prophesied Messiah was expected in three different aspects: prophet, priest, and king. By the rest of Peter’s confession, he clarified which aspect of the Messiah he was talking about. By saying “the Son of the living God,” he was proclaiming Jesus to be the prophesied Messianic king – the King of Kings. Jesus affirms this belief and encourages Peter that this knowledge was revealed by God.

When we understand the nature of who Jesus is as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, it clarifies our own understanding of who we are as well. After Peter made this confession of Jesus’ identity, Jesus responded with a declaration of Peter’s identity:

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church… “

Matthew 16:17-18a

Fully understanding and confessing who Jesus is defined Peter’s own identity – it gave him a new name and a new purpose.

In the book of Exodus, the nation of Israel had sold themselves to slavery because they were desperate for food. When they first went to Egypt, they started out on top, as the family of Joseph, the man who had saved Egypt from famine. However, as the years passed, a new Pharaoh came into power who didn’t know Joseph or care about what he had done in the past. Their status got lower and lower, until finally they were enslaved under an oppressive and cruel tyrant. As a people, the nation of Israel lost their sense of identity. They adopted a slave mentality and a sense of powerlessness.

God sent Israel a deliverer – Moses, who himself had a very confusing identity, as a Hebrew who was raised as an Egyptian. Moses grew up without a real sense of who he was and what he was, and the Israelites also had lost their sense of identity. Throughout the book of Exodus, though, we will see Moses and the people of Israel become stronger in their identity as they get to know Yahweh, their loving creator God, and experience his deliverance. They get stronger and stronger as a people as their understanding of God and their own selves becomes clearer.

In the same way, Jesus has brought about a New Exodus for us, as we today move from confusion to make a clear confession of Jesus as “the Christ, the son of the living God.” When we make that confession, the confusion about our own identity clears away, and we become the strong children of God we are called to be.

Continuing the story of Peter, Jesus not only gives Peter a new identity, but also a new calling:

“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

Matthew 16:18-19

The people of God are undergoing a New Exodus, and central to that plan of God to liberate his people is the Church. As we become clear in our confession and clear in our identity, we also become clear in our calling and purpose as the Church. We are engaged in a spiritual battle. Our battle is not political or physical. It is a spiritual battle waged against spiritual enemies with spiritual weapons and spiritual gifts.

Jesus phrased it as giving Peter keys. That’s an interesting analogy because the two basic things you do with keys are to open things and lock or unlock things. Jesus has given us the “keys of the kingdom of heaven,” which are spiritual weapons that can unlock spiritual prisons and lock up spiritual enemies. “The gates of hell shall not prevail” against those of us who hold the keys!

Often we think of the Church as being on defense. We are a refuge or fortress against the crazy things that go on in the world outside. This is true about the Church, but there is more to it than that. Jesus is saying that his Church is on offense. They were standing in Caesarea Philippi, in the setting of a pagan site which was known as “the gate of hell.” Standing in that spot on enemy territory, Jesus was giving his disciples a commission to storm the very gates of hell and unseat the spiritual forces and powers of evil in his name. He has given us the very keys that will bind evil forever and loosen the chains of God’s people in this world.

Jesus gave us power through the Holy Spirit and the message of the gospel that will literally unseat Satan from the power of this world, and liberate those who are his captives. All of us who confess faith in Jesus have been given this rock-solid identity and calling. It is not based on gender, race, or politics, but solely on the person of Jesus Christ, for the sake and glory of his name.

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You Will Receive Power

There are two major commissions that we find in Scripture that really stand out as Jesus’ commissions to his disciples and apostles, and therefore to us. The first one you probably thought of is The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), and I will be looking at that one in a few weeks.

The second one can be found in Acts 1:8:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

I’d like to focus on that word, “power.” It is translated from the Greek word δύναμις (dynamis), which we get words like “dynamite” from, and it represents the power of God. Spiritual power, Ascension Day power.

I know that during this time of quarantine and isolation, many of us feel weak and powerless. Many things have been taken out of our control – our health and safety, our finances, our relationships. Although I’ve heard that some introverts are thriving during this time, extroverts like myself can feel drained and powerless after being isolated so long. We have all lost so much that gives us energy and power.

However, we can intentionally claim this season as a time of spiritual power, a time to incubate the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 1:15-23 (emphasis mine)

What Paul is praying for the church is for them to not only understand who they are in Christ, but also to understand what is available to them through him – the immeasurably great power.

I could tell many stories of how I have seen God’s power in my own experience, but I’ll just tell this one. When I was pastoring in Florida, there was a woman in our church named Lisa who became gravely ill. There was a risky surgery that may be able to help her, but it was so dangerous that they had her lawyer come to her hospital room and help her get her affairs in order before they would even attempt it. We had our entire church and the surrounding region praying for her and for God to work a miracle. On the day of the surgery, they again scanned her body and discovered that her veins had miraculously reattached, and her diseased organ was now healthy. God had healed her completely! I was told that the vascular surgeon exclaimed out loud in the room, “That’s impossible! That can’t happen!” And the operating surgeon explained to the observing interns, “This is something they won’t tell you in medical school. Sometimes God does powerful things in the lives of people.”

This is a wonderful and powerful story, but it upsets me sometimes that nobody teaches these things! We are raised in an educational system that teaches all sorts of skills to people who are going to become doctors, lawyers, teachers, businesspeople, but it robs them of the knowledge of the power that can come through knowing the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

That’s where Paul’s prayer above becomes so necessary. We must pray to know that power, and pray for others to know that power as well. How the way we live would be changed if we really KNEW the power of God available to us!

Paul says it in more than one place in Scripture – the same power that raised Jesus from the dead also raises us who believe up with him, and we are seated with him together in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:5-6, Colossians 2:12).

As the eyes of our hearts are being opened to this immeasurably great power, a natural question follows: How can we access this power? Paul explains this, too:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:14-21 (emphasis mine)

If you’re worried about the health of a sickly plant, you need to find out what’s going on with its roots. If you’re worried about your own weak spiritual health, you need to discern whether you are rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ. If you want to see the power of God in your life, you need to be rooted and established in his love.

When you are firmly rooted in Christ, two manifestations of spiritual power will result:

  1. Spiritual Gifts – God pours out spiritual gifts on his people, and you will see his gifts manifest in your life when you are experiencing God’s power.
  2. Spiritual Maturity – As the members of the body of Christ grow in God’s power, they all grow together in maturity, filled with life and the power of God, growing up into the head, which is Jesus Christ. This will become evident in the way we relate to our spouses, parent our children, administrate ourselves in the workplace, and exercise our professions.

The power of God is what is desperately needed in our society right now. I pray that this time of isolation will be an incubation period of the Holy Spirit, so that what is released back into our societies when Christians return to the public sphere is an unleashing of a mighty revival of the Spirit of God. We must use this time as a preparation to go to war against the enemy of God, armed with the spiritual weapons of God’s Spirit.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12

May we know that power given to us by God, that same power that raised Jesus from the dead and ascended him to the right hand of God. May we embrace that power and allow God to use it to do mighty works in and through us.