Preached · March 26, 2017
Welcome — an in-between season
Good morning. My name is Anthony Parrott. It's my privilege to be here with you this morning and preach the Word of God, and I'm really, really glad you're here.
If you are visiting with us this morning, first of all, I'm just thankful that you're here. Thanks for spending a little bit of time with us. I want to let you know you're coming in during a kind of different season for us. We said farewell to our senior pastor last week, and we are in the middle of a search for a new senior pastor. It's going to be an exciting time for us to think about our vision, about what God has called us to. And so if you're visiting with us, I encourage you to stop by the Welcome Center, meet some people, and stick around. It's going to be a good time.
About seven, eight years ago, my wife Emily and I were fresh out of college. My wife was laid off, and I was trying to find a job. It was the venerable job of substitute teacher — you know, the universally respected position by all children. They had an online system where you'd go and check for jobs, and on the one hand you got to be choosy about what to choose or not choose. On the other hand, there was always that bit of, "This is my one piece of income. If I don't accept the job and one doesn't come up, then I don't work for that day." So you try to be picky — if a middle school position came up, you obviously said no. Things like that.
Now, every once in a while, these are usually just one-day gigs — sick teacher, things like that. But every once in a while, one of those longer substitute jobs would come up, and you kind of had to decide: is this going to be a good class? Do I know this class? Do I want to be with them for weeks or months at a time? Or is this something I should say no to? Well, in this case, for this congregation, this substitute teacher said "yes" for quite some time. So thanks for that. You guys are the equivalent of not middle schoolers, so thank you.
For the coming weeks and months, we are in the middle of that pastoral search, and we'll keep bringing you up to speed on what's happening. But you've got myself and Pastor Steve Petty and a variety of others on your staff and leadership team who have their eye on the ball. They have their eye on the vision that God has given to us, and we're going to keep moving ahead as a church. We're excited about this time. We are not fearful. We're not overly anxious. We're excited to see what God's going to do.
Are we there yet?
So there's this question that's dreaded by parents taking their kids on a road trip, or by a bus driver taking students on a field trip. It's a question that starts maybe 15 minutes down the road, then 18 minutes, then 19 minutes down the road. What's the question? "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"
And as a church, that question is beginning to bubble to the surface. We are in this in-between space. We just got done with the "there," saying farewell to Pastor John, and we're looking forward to a "there" that's somewhere in the future. And we're in this in-between space, and we're beginning to ask, "Are we there yet?" And there are a lot of related questions: "Where is there? Where are we going? Where is this bus taking us? Why are we here?" And I promise you, there will be no threats of turning this bus around, nothing like that.
And speaking of "Are we there yet?" — we are in week 24 of a 31-week-long series called The Story. So your preachers are asking, "Are we there yet?"
So today, no big deal, but I want to do a couple of things. One, introduce you to a person named Jesus — no small task there. And answer some of those questions: Where are we going? Why are we here? And are we there yet?
So if you have your Bibles, your iPads, your phones, I invite you to join me in the book of Matthew, chapter 16, verses 13 through 18. If you have a copy of The Story, we're on the first page of chapter 25, page 353.
Enter Jesus of Nazareth
Let me catch you up a little bit, since we've taken a break from The Story. The last we left Israel, they had just begun to return from the exile. God had created this people, the people of God named Israel, through whom he would accomplish his good purposes on the earth. They were to be the light to the world, and they had failed in this. And so they experienced exile. Well, they were coming back from exile, and now, 400 years later, it's the first century AD, and they are beginning to realize things quite aren't right yet. "We are our own people, yet we're under rule from the Romans. We always seem to be under foreign rule. We have rebuilt the temple to Yahweh, and yet it doesn't seem to have the same glory, the Shekinah glory, that it used to have before." Things just aren't quite right yet. And so they would have these expectations about a person who would make things right again.
Well, enter the person named Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth — a person who really existed according to our best historical sources, not just Scripture, but otherwise as well. And Jesus of Nazareth was what was called a rabbi. He was a first-century Jewish teacher of the law. The Jews had lots of rabbis, but something about Jesus seemed different to the Jews of that day. Number one, he taught with authority. When he talked, it seemed like he was speaking for God himself. And he wasn't just a good teacher and preacher — he also was a miracle worker. The Bible, books like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, would tell stories about Jesus coming into a town, and that town bringing all of their sick, and Jesus would heal all of them, every single one. He would work these astounding miracles. And so the Jews who were watching this rabbi, this Jesus of Nazareth, began asking the question: what if this is the one who is going to make all things right, finally? What if Jesus is the one?
Caesarea Philippi
So Jesus, being a rabbi, had a group of disciples, about 70 of them. These disciples would essentially follow Jesus around, and they were constantly wanting to imitate him in everything he said and did. They wanted to imitate every aspect of his life — what he ate and what he didn't eat, the words he said and the words he didn't say, the results he got and the results he didn't get. That's what a disciple was to a rabbi.
And so Jesus, having had these disciples following him around for a few years, takes them on a field trip — a 25-mile, two-day journey to the very northernmost part of the region of the Jews, to a town called Caesarea Philippi. If you're like me, when you open up the Bible and get to Matthew 16:13, you kind of skim over phrases like Caesarea Philippi, because you don't know where that is, you don't know what those words mean, and so you keep going. But I would invite us to stop and pay attention to these couple of words.
Caesarea basically was the city of Caesar, and the Caesars were the rulers over the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire began with Julius Caesar in the late first century BC, and then continued on with Augustus and Tiberius, who was the Caesar during the time of Jesus. They would have towns scattered throughout their empire named Caesarea. And the Caesars were interesting folks. They thought of themselves quite highly. They had these titles that they would propagate through their coins or through propaganda about themselves. They would call themselves Divi Filius, the Son of God. Or they would call themselves Dominus, Lord. Or they would be called Soter, the Savior.
And then it has a second part: Caesarea Philippi. And Philippi, he was kind of the regional governor of the Jews. He was basically a puppet king, kind of a joke to the Jews of that time. But he styled himself the king of the Jews. And every king of the Jews would be anointed, and so he would call himself the Christos, which was Greek for "anointed," or the Messiah, which was Hebrew for "anointed." And even though he was a joke to his people, this is what he called himself, and this is what he wanted everyone else to call him.
So Jesus has taken his disciples, this group of 70, up to the northernmost part of Israel to a city called Caesarea Philippi — the city of the Son of God and the city of the Messiah, both self-proclaimed. And Jesus has a question for his disciples.
Anybody here willing to admit that they've ever done a Google search on themselves? Yeah, a few of you vain folk out there. If you're really vain, you can actually set up a Google alert to email you every time your name pops up on Google. Well, I did a Google search on myself recently and found out a couple of things. One, I died. And a couple of spooky things about this one: it says, formerly of Hawaii — I lived in Hawaii briefly — and it says his father was Dale Parrott. My dad's name is Dale Parrott. This is Twilight Zone stuff, guys. So that's Anthony Parrott. Not only have I passed away, I also operated a drug ring from jail — so that's impressive, depending on your point of view on drug rings. And not only that, but I also horribly mismanaged the sewage department of Cincinnati. So you all have hired the wrong substitute teacher. Though I think it's pretty impressive that he managed to do all three.
"Who do you say that I am?"
So Jesus has taken his disciples to Caesarea Philippi, the Son of God, Messiah city. And he has a question, which is basically the first-century version of "Google me." Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is? Who do people say I am?" That's the question on the table. Jesus has been doing ministry for a while now. He's had crowds follow him around, and he asks his disciples, kind of in the middle of nowhere, "What are people saying about me?"
And so the disciples answer. They say, "Well, some say that you're John the Baptist." John the Baptist had done ministry a few years earlier. He had been beheaded by Philip's father, Herod. And some people were basically saying maybe John the Baptist came back to life in the form of Jesus of Nazareth. Others say Elijah. Elijah was this prophet in the ancient times of Israel, and he was a miracle worker who would call down fire from heaven and cause famine and drought. And then there are some who say that Jesus is maybe Jeremiah or a prophet. And the prophets were those who delivered the Word of God.
But Jesus screws the screw a little bit tighter on the question. He says, "Okay, but what about you? Who do you say that I am?" And this, I believe, is the key question — perhaps the most important question you'll ever be asked in your life. Who do you say that Jesus is?
And according to this passage, I think we're given three basic options. Maybe to you, Jesus is John the Baptist. You maybe experienced baptism as a child, as a baby, or a little later in life. Or maybe you had an emotional experience at a church service or a camp. You experienced Jesus a long time ago in a time far, far away in your life, and now you're good. You don't ever need to experience Jesus again, because you had that one-off experience and now you're set. So maybe Jesus is like a John the Baptist to you, just a one-time, one-and-done person in your life.
Or maybe to you Jesus is like an Elijah. He's this great miracle worker, a person to turn to when things get tough, when things in your life get too difficult to handle. Maybe Jesus is like an Elijah that you can turn to and say, "Fix it for me, please." But on the other hand, that Elijah has been known to call down fire from heaven, so you don't want to hang out with him too much, because things could get rowdy and out of hand.
Or maybe Jesus to you is like a prophet — like a Jeremiah or an Ezekiel or an Isaiah. And the prophets, in this case, are good for a bumper sticker, maybe a t-shirt, maybe a judgmental Facebook post, something to quote when you want to prove to somebody that they're wrong. But that's all you need. He's just a good moral teacher, this Jesus prophet, and otherwise you don't want him messing up your life.
So Jesus asks, "Who do you say that I am?" And so Simon, one of the main spokespeople for the disciples, steps up and says, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Now, this is a massive declaration. Here's Jesus, here are his disciples, standing in the middle of Caesarea Philippi, of all places — a place where it's absolutely clear that the true Son of God is Caesar, and that the true anointed one is Philip. And no one else can possibly be that, because if you say that they are, that's revolutionary words, and that could get you in big trouble. And so Jesus asks the question, "Who do you say that I am?" And Philip, in full volume, says, "You are the Son of God. You are the Messiah."
This isn't only deeply personal, deeply spiritual — it's deeply political. To say that Jesus is the Son of God means to say that Caesar is not. To say that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one of God, is to say that Philip is not. Simon therefore rejects the values of Rome, the values of empire and militarism and violence and accumulation and safety and consumerism. These are rejected in this statement. The false messiahs of convenience and moral compromise and religion for personal gain — all the things that Philip used for himself — are utterly rejected by Simon at this moment.
And so we see that when we ask this question, "Who do you say that I am?" — Jesus is not just somebody who baptizes our bodies with water and leaves it. He wants to radically transform our souls by his Holy Spirit. He's not just a miracle worker to make our lives easier and more convenient. He wants to turn our lives upside down, call down fire from heaven so that we can experience the righteousness and the justice of God's kingdom. And this Jesus is not just a bumper-sticker, t-shirt, moral teacher to give us some sense of moral superiority over everyone else. Jesus is the final prophet of God, declaring the true Dominus, the true Lord, the true God, the true king of the world, who's arrived to set all things right.
And so Peter's declaration, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" — this is a declaration of allegiance to the true king of the world, Jesus the Messiah, who through his church is revealing the kingdom, the rule, the reign of God.
On this rock
So how does Jesus respond? Jesus says, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you, Simon, are now going to be called Petros, Peter. And on this Petros, this rock, I will build my church."
So this is the story of how Simon gets his name changed to Peter, to Petros. Now, what is Jesus talking about? Is he saying that he's going to build his church on Peter, or on something else? Remember, if you're in the first century and you were experiencing the book of Matthew for the first time, more than likely it would have been read front to back, cover to cover, all in one sitting, or perhaps performed as a play or a drama. And so if you're sitting hearing this and you hear that word Petros, you're going to be reminded of something you heard maybe half an hour ago in Matthew chapter 7, the Sermon on the Mount. And in Matthew chapter 7, one of the most famous teachings of Jesus, we read Jesus's words:
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine, and puts them into practice, is like a wise man who built his house on the petra, on the rock. And the rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against this house, and yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
So Peter's declaration — that Jesus is the Messiah, that Jesus is the Son of God, that Caesar and Philip are not — Peter's declaration is the rock on which the church stands: that who Jesus is, is the King of the world.
Where are we going?
Which leads us back to our original questions: Where are we going? Why are we here? And are we there yet?
Now, we too have a rock, a foundation on which our church stands. And first and foremost, it is the declaration that Jesus is the true King of the universe. But as a staff and as a leadership team, we have a vision statement through which we filter all of our decisions. Everything our church does or doesn't do goes through this vision statement. And in its most basic form, it's that we want to see people become radical, reproducing apprentices of Jesus Christ. This forms every decision that we make as a church. This is the rock, the foundation on which our decisions are made.
Now, what does that mean? What does it mean to be a radical, reproducing apprentice? Number one, to be radical means to be rooted — like a radish is rooted in the ground. We are rooted in who Jesus is. Our declaration is the same as Peter's, standing in Caesarea Philippi, standing in the land of empire and false religion. We declare that Jesus is the true King, that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not. And so we want to be radical, to stand against our culture, be rooted in the ground, be a radish in the ground and say, "Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not."
Number two, we want to be reproducing. To be a reproducing apprentice means to be a disciple who makes disciples. For Jesus and the 70 disciples that followed him, the number one indicator of whether or not they were a disciple was whether or not they were making more disciples of Jesus — not of themselves, but of the one they followed. And so the number one indicator of health for us as a church, and whether or not we're accomplishing our vision, is: are we disciples who make disciples? Is there multiplication happening in our lives? Are we pointing more and more people to Jesus, to the true King of the universe?
And thirdly, we are apprentices of Jesus. An apprentice is another word for a disciple, and it means that we follow in the ways, the words, and the works of Jesus. We want to say what Jesus said, we want to do what Jesus did, and we want to get the results that Jesus got. That is our vision, that is our rock, that is our foundation, that is where our church stands. That is our "there."
So, are we there yet? Well, no, of course not. That is a vision that keeps growing and expanding. But we are on our way.
Your stories
Something that your staff wants to get better at, a skill we want to improve on, is getting and telling the stories of you all, of you radical, reproducing apprentices — telling the stories of where God's kingdom is being shown in the world. And we do know some of those stories. We know of families celebrating the fact that they are being supported in ways they've never felt supported before in any other context — in raising their kids, in saying goodbye to their kids, and saying goodbye to their parents. We have the stories of local-area business leaders being invested in, celebrating the fact that our church has a focus on leadership development that not only revolutionizes their lives as leaders in the marketplace, but also their spiritual lives. We have area nonprofits and churches that come to us and want to partner with us in relieving poverty and loneliness and brokenness in our community. We have children of foster and adoptive families that are being supported materially, spiritually, emotionally. We have people every week receiving prayer in that prayer room — quietly, unshowmanlike, but receiving real, miraculous healing.
And these aren't my stories. These are your stories. This is your church. Our church does not have a lead pastor right now, but our church has never rested on a single person other than the person of Jesus Christ. Our foundation and our rock is the declaration that Jesus is the king of the world. And you have a staff and a leadership team absolutely sold out to this vision. So you can huff and you can puff, but you will not blow that vision down. Amen.
Not a time to wait and see
So what kind of time is this for us? Is this a time to wait and see what happens? To hold back — hold back in our attendance, hold back in our giving, hold back in our serving, hold back in our receiving — because, well, we don't know where things are going to go, so we don't want to sink our teeth too much into what's next? Yes, we are in an in-between place, but that does not give us permission to stop moving forward. Jesus called us to a mission of being radical and reproducing apprentices of Jesus. Jesus called us to that mission, so let's do it together.
You all are the ministers of this church. Not me, not the paid professionals, not the lead pastor to come. You are the ones who make ministry happen at this church. You are the ministers.
So how do we accomplish this vision? Our strategic goals are connecting, serving, and growing. Let me show you practically what that means.
How do I connect? The number one easiest way is just showing up — attending, being here, not saying "let's just wait and see what happens," but actually showing up. And not just to Sunday mornings, but to all the things that form and create community and fellowship together. We've got a lot of fun things planned for this summer. I'm happy to tell you that we're bringing the brisket back — if that's not a work of the miraculous, I don't know what is. We've got Gone for Good coming again, where we take a Sunday morning and give an hour of service to our community. So attend. Show up. That's how you connect.
How do I serve? You serve by giving. We honestly believe that it's God's best plan for our lives when we sacrifice, when we give, when we invest our time, our talents, and our resources to God's kingdom enterprises. That includes our money, and that's a topic we're actually going to come back to in the coming months. The substitute teacher's doing his best to get kicked out of the classroom.
Let me show you a really practical way in which our money works out. Over the course of a month, there are about 400 adults that show up in this room. If each adult gave about $35 a week over the course of 52 weeks, that would be our budget. That would 100% fully fund the staff, the outreach, the mission, the ministries of what we believe God has given Good News Community Church. Now, some of you see a number like that and think that is too much — you take a big gulp. And for some of you, you see a number like that and it is far too little. And so that's the joy of community. That's the joy of fellowship. That's the joy of the common purse. We get to help each other out. But even for those of us who see a number like that with big, wide, scared eyes — $35 a week, every week — well, just because you can't do that is not an excuse to do nothing. Let me put it for you like this: when you don't have a plan to give, you will not give according to God's plan. We honestly believe that it is God's best plan for us, that God has something good in store for us, when we sacrifice and invest our time, our money, our resources to the local church. So that's how you serve, by giving.
And finally, how do I grow? You grow by receiving. How are you going to tend to your soul in these coming months? It's not up to me. It's not up to Steve. It's not up to Kelly. It's not up to your elders or your deacons. How are you going to tend to your soul? What input are you going to allow into your life to receive God's goodness into it? Whether that's joining a missional community, if that's serving, if that's being part of a small group or a class to learn God's word. If you think you can tend to your soul just one day a week, I'm sorry, but you are going to be starved and pinched spiritually.
So that is how we connect, serve, and grow together. We attend, we give, we receive.
On our way
So, back to our question: Are we there yet? No, we're not. And that's okay. I believe we're exactly where God wants us to be. And so we declare our allegiance and our dependence on the true Son of God, the true Lord, the true Messiah, the true King of the universe, Jesus Christ. We are not there yet, but by the grace of God, we are on our way.
