Are you in or are you out? Matt. 16
Since the beginning of our existence humanity has faced the choice of whether to follow God in faith, or pursue our own designs. Whether to order our lives according to the call of the living God or to disbelieve Him shrink back and follow the voice of our own deceitful heart.
There are many reasons we can give for not following the call. For one it is a call into the unknown. Thus God’s call to the descendents of Noah and his sons to spread throughout the earth was a call for them to venture into the unknown, untamed earth with only His word as their guide and direction. True God had promised that all of the beasts would fear them and had even given them a sign guaranteeing that a flood would never destroy them again. Yet, despite those promises and God’s command our ancient ancestors still chose to refuse His call and seek security, strength and significance on their own terms. For them a world without the presence of God was enough.
Fast forward several thousand years to the time of our Lord and the issue remains the same. During His ministry on earth Jesus once put a question to His followers aimed at having them discover whether they were truly going to follow Him or merely tag along for the ride. Matthew 16:13-28 records one of these conversations. Jesus begins the conversation by asking his followers who others thought He was. This question came on the heels of one of the most active periods of Jesus’ ministry. Just prior to this Jesus had miraculously fed over four thousand people, healed dozens if not hundreds of people from life debilitating physical ailments, showed uncommon compassion by casting out a demon from the daughter of a foreigner and expounded on the true meaning of the Scriptures while once again confounding the religious leaders of the day. The depth and breadth of our Lord’s activity aroused a great deal of interest in Him and speculation of who He was.
Once He poses the question the answers come pouring in, yet none of them is right. Jesus Himself gives the reason for this when Peter replies correctly saying that the truth regarding His Person is something that must be revealed by the Father. Think about that for a moment. There were people alive during the time of Jesus who actually heard Him expound the word of God, demonstrate awesome spiritual power over the forces of Satan, display complete mastery over the most unique aspect of God’s creation (the human body) and manipulate the laws of nature just as easily as we toast a slice of bread and they still didn’t come to the right conclusion concerning who He really was.
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter’s answer carries with it the uniqueness, supremacy and deity that belong to Jesus Christ alone. It therefore provides the prime reason to answer His call since to refuse is to reject the command of the Son of the living God. What is that call? According to Jesus it’s a call to experience and enjoy true, full, vital life as it was meant to be lived when God first made Adam. It is a life however that must be lived by faith since it is far easier to gravitate and hold onto the life this present world offers. Sadly, Adam believed that he’d experience a higher and better quality of life by following the dictates of Satan rather than the gracious covenant of our Lord. Regrettably, our ancient ancestors bought the lie that they’d achieve genuine, satisfying life by making a name for themselves. How typical then for Satan to whisper in Peter’s ear that true life won’t and can’t be found in following Jesus by the way of the cross but by actually using the Lord to get the things of this world.
So what’s it going to be? Are you in or are you out? The call is still there. Jesus the Anointed one, the Son of the living God calls you into a life of wonder, contentment, peace, joy, love, transformation, supreme significance and yes suffering. It is a call to live within this world, yet apart from it even as we wait for the world to come.
To Him Who Loves Us…
Pastor Lance
