Who do you say Jesus is?

Text: Matthew 16: 13-20

Focus: The authority of the church.

Function: To help people see the power of forgiveness.

Form:

Intro:

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A few days ago, I encountered a couple of Mormon young men on their “mission year.” Although I disagree with many parts of their theology, I am impressed by the love and dedication that they have for the Lord during this year.

I am not railing on the Mormon Church in this message. But they believe that Joseph Smith found the book of Mormon buried somewhere here in the US and in the book, it established a new line of succession about apostolic authority.

Today's scripture lists the reasoning behind the Roman Catholic Church's belief in the Pope.

RC's believe that Peter was the first pope and that Jesus gave him specific authority to establish whatever doctrine he believed necessary when He said to Peter, whatsoever you bind on earth and whatsoever you loose on earth.

What authority does the Church have?

What authority does the Pope have?

Is the Church just some man-made institution?

Can the Church proclaim that someone is either in the kingdom of God or not?

The big division between Protestants and RC's has to do with the authority of the Pope and the priests.

Different Protestant religions have varying degree. Some reject the pope all together, but do believe that the Priests or Pastors, the ordained clergy, have specific powers and authority.

We believe that everyone who confesses Christ is a Priest to God and that these words that Jesus spoke to Peter are true for us as well.

Jesus says, “what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

What does this actually mean? Is Jesus speaking about faith, claiming promises and or Spiritual warfare?

I know at times I have felt the presence of something particularly evil, and when I silently pray “spirit of fear, I bind you in the name of Jesus” or “spirit of fear, I plead the blood of Jesus over you,” I have sensed a block to that particular sense of evil.

Is that all Jesus is speaking about?

Let me submit three things to you about this statement, or authority that Jesus gives to Peter:

The church that Jesus tells Peter he is about to build, is the universal eternal community of believers. Jesus' words to Peter tell us something of this church.

1. Membership is gained by confessing Christ. Christ's eternal community is made up of those who trust him for their eternal security. There are no other entrance requirements. When we trust Jesus, "the Son of the living God", we are securely brought into his family forever. Even the gates of hell cannot get in the way of this faith.
2. Christ's community is eternal. It is not a religious fad which will fade out with the passing of time. Nor can spiritual powers of evil overcome Christ's eternal community.
   
3. Christ's community is functional. Each individual member of Christ's fellowship has both the authority and responsibility to offer God's forgiveness and total acceptance to all who seek his mercy in Christ.
   

Jesus gives a big-picture view of the church we need no longer feel alone, vulnerable or afraid, even if it is only two or three who meet together.

Now let me refer you to John 20, right after Jesus reappears to the disciples. He enters their room and after they get over their fright, the scripture says that Jesus breathed on them and gave them the Holy Spirit. And He said one thing about what this power of the Holy Spirit means: “Those whose sins you forgive will be forgiven, those whose sins you do not forgive will not be forgiven.”

That is real authority.

You all know the ending to the Lord's prayer: the one thing that Jesus chooses to explain about that prayer is this: “If you forgive, you will be forgiven, of you refuse to forgive, you yourself will not be forgiven.

This is the authority that we have. It works 2 ways. It works for our good and also for the welfare of others.

Consider the video we saw. It wasn't as much about forgiveness as it was the power of the gospel.

I saw the image that the people in Loveland were protesting and it is particularly offensive. I will not go into it. I can understand why believers were so upset.

But I love the way the pastor addressed the issue. Instead of taking up an offense, he took up the love of the Jesus and the gospel message.

Instead of cursing the darkness, he light a candle to show the way.

And the result of his action was repentance and a deepening of the faith of the artist. And a great impression upon the owners of the art gallery. They saw Christians responding in the same way that Jesus responded to their enemies.

About Forgiveness. I have someone who is telling me that they are going to hell because of me.

That was shocking to hear!

That is a powerful statement. I asked the person why and they said it was because they refused to forgive me.

When I first heard that, I prayed over them with this scripture. Lord, I prayed, forgive their unforgiveness toward me. I know you understand their anger and wounds. In your patience, let your love for them overcome their hatred of me. God, if it is a case of either them being in heaven or me, then have mercy on them and let them go. But more than anything, let your love give them the power to forgive even though they believe that I have wronged them. Forgive their unforgiveness. I loose your forgiveness toward them.

Listen, this is real authority that Jesus has given us. We have been given the power to forgive others. It is real.

Let me give you two more examples of how this works power actually works.

Jesus was on the cross witnessing the men who were murdering him. They were so callous to His suffering that they made a mockery of Him by gambling for his clothes. It appears that they were gambling for the clothes in full sight of Jesus.

That kind of indifference and violence is heinous.

And it would typically cause the victim to be steeled in utter hatred. The typical reaction would be a desire for revenge.

But you know what Jesus did. He prayed, “Father forgive them for they do not understand...”

He loosed forgiveness on them. And it worked. When Jesus died, their commander, the man the most directly responsible for this cruel additions to Jesus' humiliation by his soldiers declares the same thing that Peter has just declared. He says: “truly this is the Son of God.”

We have been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven. We have the power to forgive.

I am serving on another Kairos weekend in November. This time, my son JR is serving with me. Yesterday he was asking me if it was a safe place to be.

And I told him that on both occasions that I served, the men sitting directly to my right bragged about the number of people that they had killed.

It is kind of shocking.

He asked if anything had ever happened in the room. I told him the story of the young skin-head who had 2.5 tears tattooed on his left cheek. I guess that means he had murdered 2 men and attempted to murder a 3^rd.

He went for another tattoo and the prison tattoo artist, as a joke to humiliate him, tattooed a gang symbol on the back of his neck. It was the gang symbol of either the crypts, or the bloods. Both are black gangs. The artist thought it was funny, the prisoner was less than amused.

You know the cookies that you have generously made for the weekend? We distribute 60,000 cookies among the men in the room and across the entire prison.

On Saturday, we spend the day preaching about the power of forgiveness. And the men in the room are given 2 dozen cookies to give to a fellow prisoner that they need to forgive.

On that day, this Aryan nation prisoner had stuffed a shank in his boot. A shank is a homemade prison knife used to murder another prisoner. He fully intended on killing this other prisoner right in front of all of us.

Instead, the Holy Spirit got through to him and instead of killing the man, he gave him his two dozen cookies.

The prisoner disposed of his weapon, and then confessed his repentance to the men at his table.

Listen, when we forgive, God's power works on our behalf.

Do you have someone you need to forgive? And at the same time, does it feel like the blessing of God is somehow blocked in your life?

Consider that authority that you have. If and when you forgive, you loose the power of grace to work on your behalf.