One man stepped from eternity into time and changed it forever. He was before time and beyond time. The statements that He made about Himself could never be made of anyone else. Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” The answer to that question is the answer to everything. This Sunday we come to Jesus!
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Buddy Hoffman
Series: One Story: Digging Deeper
March 17, 2013
Jesus: Jesus Is…
Matthew 16
Open your Bible to Matthew, chapter 16. We have been going through a series that we as a Grace team have been working on for really a long time. We did a 12-week kind of “bus tour” through the major episodes of the Bible a couple of years ago. We spent like two weeks on each episode. You can get the notebooks in the back.
Each episode has a name, a color, and a symbol. You literally can read through the Bible in 90 days if you read it narratively and get the base storyline. You can really understand where all those things fit. We started with Kingdom Foundations. The symbol for that is a tree. Oh, you guys are so good. It makes me feel good that you remember the message.
The reason is that it’s the garden. In Genesis, chapter 1, you find the very perfect will of God. That is the kingdom of God. It is good. It is true. It is beautiful. Everything is in harmony. We are in harmony with God. We’re in harmony with one another. We’re in harmony with the earth. There is just complete balance and harmony and beauty.
Man commits treason against the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Satan’s reward for man’s allegiance is death, disease, and destruction. The reason death, disease, and destruction exist is because we committed treason against the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That’s God’s perfect will. There’s going to be a restoring, a renewing, a restoration that ends up in Revelation 21. This is God’s perfect, beautiful will for us.
What we find is there are the Kingdom Foundations, the Kingdom Family. I’m not going to expect you all to remember, but does anybody remember what the symbol for Kingdom Family is? A star! Because God says to Abraham, “Go out and count the stars.” Then there’s Kingdom Freedom; that’s Exodus. There’s Kingdom Fighting; that’s Joshua and Judges. There’s Famous Kings; Saul, David, and Solomon.
Then there’s the Fractured Kingdom and Exile. The symbol for that is the chain. Exile is where God allows you to go physically where you already are spiritually. Then there’s the Return. We’ve really spent the last few weeks talking about the return. There was the rebuilding first of the temple. There was worship. The second was the rebuilding of the Scripture, of the Torah, where they renewed their covenant with the Scripture. Then there was the rebuilding of the walls, which is really identity.
Then there is this whole period of Expecting…really 540 years from the time they built the temple. Here the New Testament starts, but there is something that is incredibly important that if you don’t understand this, it makes understanding the New Testament very difficult. When they built that temple and when they dedicated that temple, it had no ark. It had no shekinah glory. God’s glory never filled the place. They were still waiting for God’s blessing upon what they had done. Years and years and years go by.
This morning we’re going to look at this episode, which is Jesus the Lamb. I feel like (and I felt this way all week) there is no way I can actually do justice to this message. It’s a great pleasure to talk about Jesus, but Jesus is so beyond words that it really… I mean, I know I’m incapable. I don’t possess the vocabulary to express the magnitude of who Jesus is.
Listen to what I’m going to say, because I’m going to say this in a number of different ways. The church without Jesus is worthless. It’s not only worthless; it’s wicked. When you come to the book of Revelation, the last church in Revelation is called the church at Laodicea. That is where you find Jesus outside knocking on the door of the church, saying, “Listen. If you’ll open the door, I will come in. I will eat with you. We will have communion together.”
He knocks on the door of the church that is supposed to be about who he is. It troubles me beyond imagination that we as a church can forget our first love, which is Jesus. Last week, some of our grandkids came by and spent a few days with us. One of them is on the verge of conversation. It’s so much fun. I mean, you guys know. He is not there yet, but he can say certain words. He can’t string together really a sentence.
At our house, Jody hypnotizes all the grandkids or something. They love Ya Ya. That’s what they call her. It’s Ya Ya’s house and Ya Ya’s car. Everything is Ya Ya’s. I’m Ya Ya’s friend. “Ya Ya, where’s your friend?” This little guy is not even quite there yet, but I would watch him. He would come over, and he would say to Jody, “Ya Ya?” She’d go, “Yes?” He couldn’t go anywhere else.
Then he would a little while later come over and go, “Ya Ya?” You knew something was going on in his head that he wanted, but he couldn’t quite get there. He would sometimes go, “Ya Ya?” Then he would wave and point at something. I’m going to tell you this. What I really want to do this morning is, because I do not possess the vocabulary to tell you, to describe, the magnitude of Jesus, the centrality of Jesus, the preeminence of Jesus…
What I want to do is wave a little bit. I want to say, “Come here and look at this. Consider Jesus.” If you have your sheet, here are the big points. Jesus is… It could go on forever. The first and big point I want us to look at this morning is Jesus is what the Bible is all about. This is what the Bible is all about.
Secondly, Jesus is the only question that really matters. Thirdly, (and this is where we’re probably going to get to next week when we talk about Palm Sunday and they’re waving the palm branches), Jesus is the King and the Kingdom. Jesus is the King. Jesus is the Kingdom. Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. If you’re wondering, “Well, what are they talking about when they’re talking about the kingdom of God?” we’re talking about everything Jesus incarnate did and was and is about.
The fourth thing is that Jesus is God’s story. Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. John 17:3: “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3) Faith is not a position we take; it is a Person we know. Faith is not a what. It is a who, and that who is Jesus.
If you have your Bible open, look at Matthew 16, verse 13. This is when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi. If you’ve ever gone to Israel, you know that’s like 25 miles north of the north section of the Sea of Galilee. We’ll go there in June. If you want to go to Israel, come and go with us. We’ll go there. We were there just last year. Today it’s a place that’s littered with religious pilgrims. It’s beautiful. It’s amazing.
In that day, that space represented the Roman Empire. It also represented the pagan influences that had been predominant in that community for generations. They worshiped the god Pan, which is where we get our idea of pandemonium. It was dedicated to the worship of Caesar. Jesus takes this group of ragamuffins up with him all the way 25 miles into a very hostile environment. He takes them there to ask them this single question: “Who do people say I am?”
Now they answer that question by saying, “Well, some say John the Baptist. Some say Elijah and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Their answer is very kind, because they could have said, “Up here in Caesarea Philippi, they don’t even know who you are. You’re nobody here. You’re not even a curiosity here. Down there in Jerusalem, they’re a little worried about you. Out there in Galilee, they’re talking about you. You’re kind of famous down in Galilee. But up here, you really are not even a topic of conversation.”
Now do you suppose this morning at the national briefing in the White House they discussed Grace Fellowship? I don’t think so. It would be kind of nice to do something that important, but I don’t think… You know, we are! Up here, they didn’t know really at this point who Jesus was. This is the place where the superstition was. It was the gates of hell. This is where the gates of hell began. It was the headwaters of the Jordan River.
They said, “Well, some people think you’re Elijah. Some people say you’re John the Baptist. Others say you’re Jeremiah,” which is certainly heady company. “Then he asked them, ‘But who do you say I am?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ Jesus replied, ‘You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.
Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means “rock”), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.'” (Matthew 16:15-19)
Did anybody here grow up watching The Invisible Man? That movie freaked me out. The War of the Worlds, you know? The Time Machine. What books would you take? H. G. Wells was the author of those books. He was a British historian, and here’s what he said about Jesus. “I am [a] historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”
Now H. G. Wells was a smart man. H. G. Wells was a learned man. H. G. Wells was a skilled man. H. G. Wells knew a lot about Jesus, maybe even more informationally, historically, archeologically than some of the people in this room here, but there is a great gulf, a massive chasm, between knowing about someone and knowing someone. Massive.
Brad Pitt. I know about Brad. I don’t like Brad that much. Ever since he made that vampire movie, he kind of weirded me out. I don’t get the vampire thing. I’m sorry. It’s like, “You’re going to eat blood? No! Ew! That’s nasty!” Then he married Angelina Jolie, the one with the mutant lips. I think they do good things. Sometimes my efforts to be funny offend people. Listen. Don’t let it bother you. Honestly.
Somebody wrote me a while back and said, “You know, I think you’re a second-rate comic.” Do you know what? I wrote them back, and I said, “You know, I really am not second-rate. I’m like fifth. There are a lot of people…” If a throw-aside offends you, go, “He thinks he is funny, and he is not.” I don’t even actually think I’m funny that much.
I don’t know Brad Pitt. I can’t call him up. I don’t know his mother or his brother or his cousin or his schoolteacher or what he likes for breakfast. I don’t really know him. I know something about him. Let me tell you something. Here is what God wants for you and God wants for me: that we actually know God. Not about God, but that we actually have an intimacy with God himself.
Where I study and where I marinate on the Scriptures every week is down in the bowels of my basement. I have this computer. I have books, and I have Bibles. Right behind me there is this old faded copy of a book I got in 1973. I didn’t even buy it. I was running a bookstore for the college, and I went up to Grand Rapids. I was looking through the bookstore. Actually my motives weren’t even that good. I was just looking for books that would sell well in Christian bookstores.
I walked into this bookstore. It was an impressive bookstore. It was a small, family-run bookstore. I walked in, and I said, “Tell me what your top 10 selling books are.” He said, “Come into my office.” I went in, and I sat down. He reached over behind him, and he pulled a book off of a stack. He pushed it across the desk. He said, “This is the one you need to read.” Now I didn’t go there to read any of his books; I actually went to sell books. He goes, “This is the one you need to read.”
The title of that book was Knowing God. It was written by J. I. Packer. I remember going back to my hotel room that night. I opened that book up, and I started reading it. In chapter 3, on page 29 of that book, Packer asks the question…What are we created for? He answers his question: to know God. He said, “What is the major, chief aim of life?” Then he answers that question: to know God.
Then he quotes from Jeremiah 9:23 and 24. “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me…for in these things I delight.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24)
I remember looking through that list. “Let not the wise man, the mighty man, the wealthy man…” I recognized those three things are the things that most of us pursue most of our lives. Those are the gods America bows down to. If you’re smart, okay. If you’re not smart, you’d better be pretty. If you’re smart and pretty, that’s even better. If you’re not smart or you’re not strong or pretty, you’d better have a lot of money. If you have some capital in one of those areas, in the Americas, man, okay. You’re in.
Here’s what God says. “This is what delights my heart, that they understand and they know me.” What we find is the reality. How do we know God? We know God by knowing who Jesus is. Let’s look at that first one kind of quickly. Jesus is what the Bible is all about. For a lot of people who have a superficial knowledge of the Bible, the Bible is a library of sacred books in the sense they know they’re all holy, but they do not see them as a whole. They don’t see them as an integrated plotline/storyline going anywhere.
There are lots of ways to read the Bible. You can read the Bible devotionally. You can just kind of flip through and say, “I need something today, God, from you. Okay, here we go. ‘”Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless.” What do people get for all their hard work under the sun?’ Oh no. God, I really need something other than that. It’s all meaningless. ‘So people have no real advantage over the animals.’ No, God. Maybe I need the book of Psalms. ‘I hate those with divided loyalties…’ Oh no.”
You can read it devotionally. Do you know what? The reality is sometimes you can come up with some pretty good stuff. Basically what a lot of people do is they have a nugget theology. You know, “I got a nugget from God today. I got a nugget, and it kind of fed me today.” What that will produce in you is really the spiritual vitality of a snacker. Do you know what a snacker is? It’s where there’s no real attention to nutrition. I mean, I go grab whatever is out there. You live off just this little snack here and snack there.
Or you can be someone who lives and feeds yourself the meat of the very Word of God. You can read the Bible critically. You can read the Bible as literature. You can read the Bible academically, but if you really want to read the Bible at it is meant to be read… If you want to jot the references down, I’m going to read them pretty quickly. You might not be able to follow along.
The way Jesus read the Bible is this. John, chapter 5:39 through 40. He says to the Pharisees, who were students of the Scripture… They studied it academically. They studied it for a path of life. He says, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life.” (John 5:39) This is what Jesus said. “…and these are they which testify of me.” (John 5:39)
Luke, chapter 4, verse 16. This is Jesus’ first sermon he preaches in Nazareth. “So he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.
And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written: ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’
Then he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.'” (Luke 4:16-21) Do you know what he is saying? He is saying, “When Isaiah was writing, he was writing about me.”
Isaiah is about Jesus. The prophets are about Jesus. It’s the way Jesus taught his disciples to read the Bible. Luke, chapter 24, verses 44 through 52: “Then he said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets…concerning me.'” (Luke 24:44)
He opened the Scriptures, and he opened their understanding. What he pointed out to them was all this was about Jesus. It’s the way the disciples taught the church to read the Bible. In Peter’s very first sermon, 3,000 people come to faith. Now that’s a ton of people. Say amen. Man, that would be amazing. Suppose you have to get up, and you’re going to preach a message. You’re hoping people will come to faith. What’s going to be your subject? You’re going to try to get people to come closer to God.
Are we going to preach on how to be a good person (which wouldn’t be a bad sermon to preach in Jerusalem, considering the fact they just crucified Jesus), how to have a good marriage, how to identify leaders, how to lead a movement, how to build a church, how to be kind, how to get the most out of life, how to live well, how to raise good kids? All those are wonderful things. If you walk into the Christian bookstore or you go to Barnes & Noble and look through the list of books, you’ll find topic after topic after topic.
What Peter preaches on is very clear. Acts, chapter 2, verse 14. “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, ‘Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words.” (Acts 2:14) Then he goes through and explains the Passover a little bit. Look down to verse 21. “And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Acts 2:21) The word Lord there is Yahweh. He says, “This is what is happening here. Anyone who will call upon the name of Yahweh will be saved.”
Verse 22: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves also know—him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it. (Acts 2:22-24)
This is an interesting statement. Listen to it. It’s in verse 25. “For David says concerning…” (Acts 2:25) Who? Whoa! Wait a minute. David says concerning Christ. Listen. Anybody at all who goes to seminary knows that’s not how you read the Bible. That’s not the original intent of the author.
David can’t know this. David’s mind is limited. Do you know what? Here is the way we read the Bible, because this is the way Jesus read the Bible. This is how the disciples read the Bible, that the words David spoke were not just David’s words; they were God’s words. God knew exactly what he was going to do.
He says, “For David says concerning him: ‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in hades, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of joy in your presence.'” (Acts 2:25-28)
That’s that section we talked about in Famous Kings. Verse 29: “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.” (Acts 2:29) Do you see what he is saying? He said, “Let’s get the record straight. David is dead. David’s bones are rotted. David’s flesh has been eaten with worms. David’s arms grew weak. His sharp eyes hazed over. His heart failed.”
David was not just a king; David was a prophet. You look at verse 30. “Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ… This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.” (Acts 2:30-32)
Look down to verse 36. “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36) What is he saying? Jesus is not just another in a line of messengers. Jesus is not just another in a line of priests. Jesus is not just another in a line of kings. Jesus is Lord and King. Here is what Peter makes exceedingly clear.
In his second sermon in chapter 4, Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit. He says to the rulers and elders in verse 11, “This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:11-12)
What does that mean? It is Jesus. They looked at these guys, and they said, “Do you know what? They’re just common guys. They’re not trained. They’re not specialists.” What is absolutely obvious about them is they are absolutely consumed with Christ. The result of that is 3,000 people come to faith. Here’s what people need. They need Jesus. Here’s what you need: Jesus. Here’s what I need: Jesus.
This is not only the way Jesus read the Bible, that he taught the disciples to read the Bible, that the disciples taught the Bible. It’s the way the disciples of the disciples taught the Bible. When you get over into Acts, chapter 8, Stephen, who got, like recruited to the deacon board, pretty soon was an evangelist. He was running around, and he saw this guy going down the road. For most of us, this would have been a bit of an uncomfortable conversation.
This is the one I remember reading as a kid (it’s Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch) and asking my mom, “What’s a eunuch?” She went, “You’ll find out later.” Philip runs along, and he hears him reading out of a scroll, which would have been very expensive. Philip says, “Do you understand what you’re reading?” He is reading out of Isaiah 53. He said, “How can I, except someone teach me?” This is Philip’s answer. “You’re reading about Jesus!” That’s his answer.
Let me tell you something. If you’re ever in a situation and you don’t know what to say, the answer is… What? It’s Jesus. This is what people need. We need to know Jesus. We need to have Jesus. I mean, this is the simple straight scoop. They said, “Listen. What are you guys about?” He says, “You know, we’re not wealthy. We’re not smart. We’re not witty. We’re not wise. We’re not sophisticated. We’re not traveled. We’re not trained. Here’s what we know: we know Jesus.”
That question is the question that ultimately matters. It’s the question…the only question…that matters. If you read the Bible as Jesus read the Bible, as Jesus taught the Bible, what you recognize all through this arc of the story… You read Genesis, and John explains to you, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” It is Jesus who is the light. He is the life. He is the truth. He is the beauty of Genesis, chapter 1.
When you come to Abraham, the famous families in the Kingdom Family, here’s what Jesus said about Abraham. “…before Abraham was, I AM.” “…Abraham rejoiced to see my day…” When you come to the book of Exodus and you see Moses and the burning bush, Jesus is the Passover Lamb. Hebrews tells us he is a greater than Moses.
When you come to the Kingdom Fighting, he is not just the deliverer. He is not just like Joshua. He is the captain of the Lord of Hosts. When they move around in the temple, he is the shekinah glory. He is the pillar of fire that leads them. He is the manna in the wilderness. In Leviticus, he is not just better than Aaron, the high priest. He didn’t just make an offering; he becomes the offering.
When you come to the Famous Kings, he is not just a new David and better than Solomon. He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the only flawless king. Yes, David was a man after God’s own heart, but Jesus is the heart of God. It troubles me that it feels like sometimes we have forgotten Jesus. It feels like sometimes we have bought into this, “Ten helpful hints to be a good dad,” “Five facts for new families.”
There’s nothing wrong with all that, but I don’t know if you’ve noticed that when Jesus said to the disciples, “Follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of men” in the Gospels, they were failures as followers. They went to sleep in prayer meetings. They ran out at the most crucial time you can imagine. I mean, they said the wrong things at really important meetings. Do you know what I mean?
Okay, you have a meeting with Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. He says, “Let’s build tabernacles for everybody right now.” Do you know what? Listen. If you don’t know what to say and you’re in a meeting with Elijah and Moses, just shut up. At least people will think you were wise. Peter can’t do that. They were failures as followers.
I have an axe to grind with this. I think it’s a great phrase. I love people saying, “Do you know what? We just want to do what Jesus would do. We want to be followers of Jesus.” Do you know what the problem is? We can’t! Suppose Tiger Woods invites me to go play golf over at Summit Chase. Some of you are saying, “I don’t like you bringing up Tiger Woods. He is an immoral moron.” Yes, he is, but he is an amazing golfer. When he is on his game, he is good. Amen?
He says to me, “Hey, Buddy. I want you to come play with me. I’ll tell you what to do. You just follow me.” Do you know what the problem with that is? My game doesn’t look like his game. I can’t hit from the tees he hits from. My ball doesn’t go where his ball goes. I can’t really follow him. If he says to me, “Why don’t you just drive the cart, and I’ll hit the ball for both of us?” we’re going to have a good game.
You do understand this is what this is about. This is why Jesus died and was buried and resurrected and the Holy Spirit came. It’s because he is going to fill you with his Spirit, and he is going to hit the ball for you. Yeah! Isn’t that good? Now let me tell you something. I’m afraid we have sold this idea that Christianity is about being good. Do you know what? We should try to be good. Say amen. Yes, that’s true.
But in and of ourselves, we don’t have the ability to be that good. Even when we are, sometimes we resent it. It leads to this terrible crush of legalism. It leads to resentment and Phariseeism where we’re comparing one another. “I’m not doing as much as them. They’re doing more than me. I’m doing more than them.” Listen. What matters is that we truly not just know about Jesus but we have intimacy with Jesus.
Because I’m going to tell you something. What this city needs is Jesus. Yeah. What our neighborhoods need is Jesus. You know, these little bags we’re going to put out here in a few minutes… It breaks my heart that we live in a community where there is one single foster child. These little kids come into these homes who have been sexually abused and physically abused and hungry.
Do you know what they need? They need a toothbrush, and they need some clean socks, but they need Jesus. Their families need Jesus. Their fathers need Jesus. I’m just going to say this to you. We don’t have anything to offer you except Jesus, but because we have Jesus, we have everything to offer you. Let’s pray.
Lord, we just want to take a few minutes and tell you we love you. We love the fact that you inhabit us, that you draw us to yourself, that you are beyond words. We want to worship you. We call out to your name. Lord, there may be some here this morning who have never, ever come into this kingdom. You are the King, and you are the Kingdom. Sometimes we come in, and we want you to fix our lives, but we don’t need fixing. We need recreating. We need new hearts and new minds. We need new passions. We need you.
We’re going to receive the offering. David is going to lead us in a song. Then after that song, I’m going to walk down here. If you don’t know Christ, I’d be happy to meet with you. If you have some other things you want to pray about, we’d be happy to pray with you. We also invite you after this next song to come down. If you want to take one of these bags and be part of this, we more than want you to do that. We have Communion available.
Listen. If you’re sitting here going, “I hear this, but I don’t know Jesus,” here’s what you need to say. Listen. “Jesus, fill me. Hear me.” Just be honest. Be real, because that’s what he calls for…authenticity. Just repent and go, “I don’t know you. I’ve done church. I know the songs. I know the verses, but my heart is empty. I need you.” Here’s what Jesus says. “Him who comes to me I will never cast him out.” This is Jesus.