Ephesians 3.18 (NIV)
If you drop
into Borders Books, or Waterstones or Ottakers or Blackwells, you will find the
computer sections filled with books written to help you – how to work with
Microsoft Windows, how to surf the internet, how to build your own computer…..
the same is true of sermons,
there are thousands of books on how to write sermons, books with sermons
written by famous preachers, and books offering suggestions for sermons you can
use yourself……….. glancing through one of these the
other day, I found one where the author was writing about Peter, we were
reading about him in Matthew 16 this morning. This is what our author wrote:
‘Peter was not the brightest, the most gifted, or the strongest
character in the New Testament, but he is probably the most popular. We are all
fond of him. We like his outspokeness, his energy, and if the truth be told,
his blundering. We sympathize with his slowness, his weakness in temptation,
his fears, his bitter regrets.……
the moment of truth came to
Peter at Caesarea Philippi, when he first realised who Jesus was…. all the
thrilling days …… with Jesus suddenly made sense……… all the hints, the
wonderings, the hesitant questionings,
the private puzzled discussions with the rest of the Twelve, all pointed to one
irrestible conclusion - suddenly Peter
understood – who Jesus was.
Now yes, this was a wonderfully
dramatic moment at Caesarea Philippi when Jesus asked the disciples who they
thought He was, and a wonderfully dramatic answer from Peter…… and yes, Peter
is the first in the gospels to declare “You are the Christ, the Son of the
living God……….”
But the words of Jesus in reply “Blessed are you, Simon Peter for this truth did not come to you from any human being, but it was given to you directly by my Father in heaven” make us stop and think for a moment.
These words of Jesus tell us
that Peter has not worked out for himself who Jesus is, in a flash of religious
insight, or a moment of genius, this is not so much a realisation, or an
irrestible conclusion that Peter has come to …. but
rather - God the Father has opened
Peter’s eyes, and mind………and heart !
God the Father working in Peter
to open his eyes to see who Jesus is, to fill his mind and understanding with
the truth about Jesus, to fill his heart with the light of Jesus….
So here’s the first thing: We
learn something important about Christian truth here – that what human beings
know, what we know of the truth of Jesus Christ is given to us, this is not a discovery we make for ourselves,
Instead, the truth about Jesus
comes
through
God the Father opening our eyes to see who Jesus is, filling our minds and our
understanding with the truth about Jesus, filling our hearts with the light of
Jesus….
This is exactly what Paul says
in the first chapter of Galatians…
the gospel – he writes - I did not receive it from anybody, nor was I
taught it, I received it from Jesus Christ……..!
So, what we know of Jesus
Christ is given to us, as it was to Peter, it is not a discovery we make
ourselves.
The truth about Jesus comes
through God the Father opening our eyes to see who Jesus is, filling our minds and our understanding with the truth about Jesus, filling our hearts with the light of Jesus….
Some might say, then, if we
want to know about Jesus aren’t we stuck, helpless, waiting on God ?
Well Paul comes back with an
answer to that in Ephesians 3……
He begins by writing may you have the power to grasp how wide and
long, and high and deep is the love of Christ……….
Now – isn’t that really knowing Jesus ? isn’t really knowing Jesus all about grasping how wide and long, and high and deep His love really is ? Of course it is.
And how do we come to know the
love of Jesus in this way ?
Paul goes on to write to the
Church at
Jesus Christ – is able to do immeasurably more than all we
ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us………….
and then
Paul goes on to pray for precisely that power to be at work in the hearts of
the men and women in the Church at
So if we wish to have the power
to grasp how wide and long, and high and
deep is the love of Christ………. we pray for it, ask our Father in heaven for
His power to work within us ……… it is that simple – so simple………
as the
old hymn puts it
God through Himself we then shall know if Thou within us shine and
sound with all the saints below the depths of love divine.
If we wish to have the power to
grasp how wide and long, and high and deep is the love of Christ………. we pray
for it, ask our Father in heaven for His power to work within us ……… it is that
simple – so simple………
Back to Peter - “You are the Christ, the Son of the living
God” Peter said.
What do these few words mean ?
“You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God”
A couple of days ago, I was
marvelling on the computer at ‘Google.earth’ – by the wonders of the modern
computer you can actually see, from space, every house in a city. I couldn’t
get it to work on
Then you can step back a little
and you will see the street, then the area, then the city of Glasgow itself,
then Scotland, then the British Isles, then Europe, then the world itself……….
stepping
back – you see the big picture………….
when
we ask what these few words of Peter
mean, speaking of Jesus,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”
these are
words that speak of who Jesus is, and how wide and long, and high and deep His
love is.
There is vast meaning in them,
more in majesty and glory than we can ever grasp…..
In the prophecy of Isaiah,
chapter 59, the passage we heard read this morning, Isaiah is direct and blunt
about the sinfulness of the world.
The prophet declares that we
are a race broken away from God, death and suffering are
unleashed among us, we are threatened with nothingness……………
But declares Isaiah……..
The Lord has seen all this and will act. His servant will come, like a pent up flood the Redeemer will come !
And it is this same One, the
One who has come, the One spoken of in Isaiah 59, it is this same One, the Redeemer
revealed to Peter at Caesarea Philippi. This
is Jesus of whom the Father says This is
my Son whom I love- with Him I am well pleased . The
Eternal Son who has taken a body like ours, entered into human weakness and
death for us – this is how wide and long, and high and deep His love is
What happens next at Caesarea
Philippi is instructive
Peter, it seems goes back to
his own way of understanding things,
for
when Jesus goes on to speak of all that will happen in the days to come,
when
Jesus goes on to speak of the road to
when
Jesus goes on to speak of the cross that lies ahead….
Peter rejects all that Jesus
says…………..
when
Jesus speaks of the service and suffering that are still ahead, the path and
the road of obedience which will end in death,
Peter takes Him aside and says that this will never be.
Yet, this is how wide and long,
and high and deep the love of Christ is.
He has entered into death
itself for us
and broken
its power -
for it
was God’s purpose in Jesus Christ that He should bear all our sins away,
that
He, Jesus, the Redeemer, should break the power of death over us,
and restore us to life.
This is, the apostle John
writes, this is how God showed His love
among us – He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live
through Him, a sacrifice for our sins, restoring us to God……….
AMEN