Matthew 16:13-17 *
In the name of Jesus Christ, dear friends:
Confession. That word can put a number of different pictures in a person’s mind. Some will picture a small booth tucked away in a corner of a large cathedral. Others will see a smoky interrogation room furnished with nothing more than a bare table and a couple chairs.
The name of the festival we celebrate today can have a similar effect. Even though “The Confession of St. Peter” has nothing to do with repentance or forgiveness, some people might assume that it refers to a time when Peter confessed one of his well-known sins (like doubting Jesus when he walked out to him on the water or cutting off the ear of Malchus or denying Jesus three times).
The problem is that the word, “confession,” has two very different meanings: 1. an acknowledgement of fault or wrongdoing; or 2. a declaration of one’s religious beliefs. It is the second (and probably less common) definition that we focus on today.
We live in a world that tends to blur the lines between right and wrong. We are part of a culture that has essentially rejected the idea that there is absolute truth. Because of the influence of pluralism and relativism and universalism it is no longer socially acceptable to take a stand and stand up for what you believe.
These aren’t reasons for Christians to stop confessing. In fact, they make confession more important than ever. We need to confess. We need to confess the truth. We need to confess the truth for our own benefit and for the benefit of others. The question is: How?
Perhaps Peter can help us find the answer. In the text before us this morning he makes a beautiful and powerful confession of faith. There is much that we can learn from these words spoken by Peter and written by Matthew and inspired by the Holy Spirit. And so we will use them to guide us as we take…
A LESSON IN CONFESSION
I. The need for confession
II. The
content of confession
III. The
source of confession
Peter didn’t make his bold confession while standing on the
steps of the temple in
It was there that Jesus asked his disciples this question: “Who do people say the Son of Man is” (13)? Jesus wanted his followers to tell him what the people thought of him. Not because he didn’t already know. Not because he was concerned about his image. The Lord specifically asked his disciples this question to help them formulate their own answers to the all-important question: Who is Jesus?
The disciples reported that the people had come up with all
kinds of different answers: “Some say
John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the
prophets” (14).
Apparently Jesus enjoyed a high approval rating with the people of his day. It was a high compliment to equate Jesus with John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus who in his short ministry had gathered a significant following of his own.
It was flattering to mention Jesus in the same breath as Elijah, the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, the one who defeated the prophets of Baal (I Kings 18) and was carried up to heaven in a chariot of fire (II Kings 2).
It was an honor to put Jesus in the same category as Jeremiah and the other prophets who served as God’s representatives on earth. There was no denying that the people thought a lot of Jesus, but there was still a problem. They said lots of nice things about him, but they didn’t say enough about him because they didn’t understand who Jesus really was.
And history has a way of repeating itself. Ask people the same question today, and you will hear many of the same answers. Even though our culture is becoming increasingly anti-Christian, Jesus remains a popular figure. Many non-Christians and non-Christian religions will go so far as to call Jesus a great prophet, a great teacher, a great man, but nothing more than a man.
Does that description match up with what the Bible says about Jesus? Do the words of Jesus allow us to accept the opinion that he was a great teacher and nothing more? The Christian author C.S. Lewis would answer with an emphatic “no.” He attacks the “Jesus is just a great man” idea in his book Mere Christianity:
“A man who was merely
a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral
teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on
the level with a man who says he is a poached egg—or he would be the devil of
hell. You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or
else a madman or something worse. You
can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and
God. But let us not come with any
patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us.”
First century or twenty-first century, it doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people have so many wrong ideas about Jesus demonstrates that there will always be a great need for confession. And that is exactly what Peter provides.
This is actually the second sermon in this series that I am
preaching on the subject of confession.
Seven weeks ago today I preached on the 476th anniversary of
the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession, a document that defined and
defended the teachings of the
In contrast Peter’s confession is made up of a grand total of ten words, but those ten words capture the essence of the Christian faith. Let’s take a few moments to examine the content of Peter’s confession: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (16)…
“You are” – It would be easy to skip over these words, but then we would miss something important. “You are” is more than a simple subject and a simple verb. “You are” rules out the possibility that this was something Peter used to believe in the past. “You are” rules out the possibility that this was something Peter hoped to become a reality in the future. By saying “You are,” Peter was telling Jesus: “Lord, this is my firm conviction. This is what I believe about you today. Right here. Right now.”
“The Christ” – An entire sermon could be preached on this title alone. “Christ” is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word, “Messiah.” Literally, it means “the anointed one.”
For centuries, God’s people had been watching and waiting
for the promised Messiah. But when he
finally arrived many people were disappointed.
They were disappointed because Jesus didn’t live up to their idea of
what the Messiah should be. They wanted
an earthly leader. They wanted a
political liberator. They were looking
for a man to rule on the throne of David and re-establish the golden age of
But Peter was not among them. Peter was not at all disappointed by the man who stood before him. He knew that Jesus was not an earthly Messiah. He understood that Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world. He believed that Jesus had been anointed by God for one sacred purpose: to rescue the world from eternal death, to liberate people from their sins, to rule in people’s hearts.
“The Son of the living God” – Peter believed that Jesus was more than a man, but that was not the only thing that made him different. That was not the only thing that set him apart from all the other gods and goddesses.
The true God was a living God. He wasn’t the product of human
imagination. He wasn’t made out of metal
or wood or stone. The more Peter
listened to what Jesus said and saw what Jesus did, the more he appreciated the
fact that his God was a living God.
With a simple question Jesus tested the understanding of his disciples, and Peter passed the test with flying colors. He knew exactly who Jesus was, and his clear and concise proved it. But before we congratulate him, before we canonize St. Peter, we need to read a little further.
Later on in this chapter Jesus began to explain to his
disciples what was waiting for him in
When Jesus’ prediction of his arrest came true, Peter was given another chance. But when the people in the courtyard asked him who he was, when Peter was asked how he was associated with Jesus, he froze. He failed to confess. Even worse, he denied that he even knew who Jesus was.
Peter’s confession doesn’t make him better than everyone else. Peter’s failure to confess doesn’t necessarily mean that he is worse than everyone else. The Holy Spirit allows us to see both the good and the bad for a reason. He wants us to see that Peter is a flawed human being, that he had his ups and downs, that he is really a lot like us.
We confess our faith in many different ways. We are members of a Christian church. We wear crosses around our necks. We talk about God where we work. We rejoice for those times when we seize the opportunities God gives us to share the hope we have in Jesus.
But there are also times when we contradict our confession. When we use the word “Christ” as an expletive instead of as an exclamation of praise, we send mixed signals to the unbelieving world around us. When we use God’s name in vain, or maybe even worse, when we fail to use God’s name at all, we disobey him and dishonor him. Because we fail to confess our faith clearly and consistently, we need to kneel down next to Peter for the other kind of confession.
But all is not lost. Our God is a God of second chances. Our God is a God of free and full forgiveness. And in response to Peter’s bold declaration of faith, Jesus reminds us that our confession is only as strong as its source: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven” (17).
Peter’s confession wasn’t a carefully prepared statement of his personal beliefs. Peter’s confession wasn’t the product of a careful examination of the facts. It was spontaneous. It was miraculous. It was a visible and audible demonstration of the faith that God himself had planted in Peter’s heart.
We have the same God. We have the same faith. We believe that by our own thinking or choosing we cannot believe in Jesus Christ or come to him. We believe that our salvation is 100% the work of God. We believe that Jesus is our Savior, that he lived a sinless life, that he died in our place, that he rose from the dead, that he has ascended to prepare our places in heaven, that he loves us and leads us, and that he still gives his disciples the will and the words to boldly confess the truth.
The philosopher Albert Camus once said: “The guilty conscience needs to confess.” At the end of this sermon we could say: “The clean conscience wants to confess.” As forgiven sinners, we want to confess our faith. As God’s witnesses to the world, we want to confess the truth. As blood-bought children of God, it is an honor and a privilege to stand with St. Peter and say: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Amen.