Latest / Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms / #208. Who Do You Say Jesus Is? Faith, Suffering & the True Gospel | Matthew 16–17, Mark 8

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#208. Who Do You Say Jesus Is? Faith, Suffering & the True Gospel | Matthew 16–17, Mark 8 · Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms

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  This is The Dwelling Place from Entrusted Ministries.
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  I'm Stephanie Hickox today we'll focus on the most important question you'll ever be asked, Who do you say Jesus is?"
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  Your response and nothing you can do will determine your eternity but as we seek to understand the salvation of Jesus, today's reading reminds us to be careful that we don't misunderstand what the gospel means, And that we don't
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  teach our children to cling to promises that Jesus never provided.
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  The God that we serve is greater than we could imagine, and any religion that strays from the truth of His Word?
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  Will pale an eternal comparison The last episode, elevated Peter's boldness and faith.
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  and in chapter 16, when Jesus takes the disciples on a field trip Peter gets it and then he doesn't I can relate, can't you?
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  Before I begin one of our passages for today, I wanna explain geographically where Jesus led the disciples He took them about 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee to Caesarea Philippi Caesar Augustus gave this to Herod the
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  Great and Herod built a temple there in honor of Caesar But then he gave it to his son, Philip Hence the name Caesarea Philippi This was a truly pagan location and the cave there was known as the Gates
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  of Hades People believed that the god Pan lived there And they would commit all sorts of evil here, including sacrificing children Understanding where they are, let's look at Matthew chapter 16 beginning in verse 13 Now when Jesus came
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  into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
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  And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, and others Elijah, but still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
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  He said to them, But who do you say that I am?"
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  Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
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  And Jesus said to him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
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  I also say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
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  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on heaven shall have been loosed in heaven."
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  Then he warned the disciples that they should tell no one that he was the Christ.
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  From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.
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  Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, God forbid it, Lord!
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  This shall never happen to you."
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  Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
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  And they said, Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
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  He said to them, But who do you say that I am?"
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  Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
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  And Jesus answered him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
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  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
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  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven."
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  And whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
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  Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
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  From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
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  And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, Far be it from you, Lord this shall never happen to you.
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  But he turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan.
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  You are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."
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  Then Jesus told his disciples, If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
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  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
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  For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
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  Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
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  For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each one according to what he has done.
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  Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom We are very used to referring to Jesus as Jesus Christ, almost like it's
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  His last name.
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  But Christ is not a last name, and even saying that name is like a confession that we're a Christian In the Greek it means the anointed one, and in Hebrew it means Messiah.
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  When you say Jesus Christ, you're saying Jesus is the promised Messiah that the Old Testament talked about He's this anointed one who is simultaneously the prophet, the priest, and the king This confession is full of faith and I
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  think we get used to that phrase, the living God But when it came up in the Old Testament, It was usually contrasting God from the fake lifeless idols that people worshiped Let me just read Peter's confession again.
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  You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
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  Peter gets it but he's been given this understanding by God the Father.
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  It doesn't mean he knows what to do with his understanding.
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  Because when Jesus says that he's going to be killed and raised up, of course Peter doesn't want that to happen Jesus says, "Don't think about fleshly things."
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  you have to think about spiritual things we know from the Garden of Gethsemane that Jesus himself did not want to go through this painful death, But he submitted to the will of the Father.
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  And Jesus is saying, "Peter, you don't get it You're on but you're not following his agenda In fact, Jesus explains that we will all have to take up our cross and follow him This is before Jesus surrendered His
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  life on the cross And the cross was seen as the most shameful death possible.
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  It was for criminals it's like Jesus is saying, Accept your prison sentence and follow me" And instead of thinking about how we can bring the most joy and pleasure in this life We're to live with a heavenly focus
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  Jesus does not shy away from addressing the difficulty of following him on this earth But he consistently speaks to the worthiness of it Don't miss that he said God will repay each person according to what they have done
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  And in chapter 17, we get a glimpse of the glory that Jesus Christ deserves After about six days, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John to see a glimpse of His glory In Matthew 17, beginning in verse one, And
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  after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
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  And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.
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  And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him."
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  And Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here.
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  If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah."
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  He was still speaking when behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
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  Listen to him."
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  When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
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  But Jesus came and touched them, saying, Rise and have no fear."
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  And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, tell no one the vision Until the Son of Man is raised from the dead
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  Don't you just love these moments when God elevates Jesus on this Earth?
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  As he so patiently waits for every knee to bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord I just delight in these glimpses It's like, it's like God just gives a sneak peek of the glory He deserves.
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  when we were walking through the first couple books of the Bible, and we were talking about the life of Moses, feels like forever ago, doesn't it?
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  When Moses received his consequence that he would never see the promised land, I kind of joked that I think that that might be one thing maybe Jesus teased him at the transfiguration and said something like, Hey, Moses, how's
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  the view of the Promised Land?"
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  And they may have talked about that, but Luke 9:31 Also says that they were talking about Jesus's death, which would happen in Jerusalem Perhaps this moment provided encouragement for Jesus to remain faithful to the calling.
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  Not saying he was wavering, just saying that he was a human.
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  And only Luke records that, that the three disciples were heavy with sleep So maybe that's why Peter offered to make the tents.
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  He wanted the moment to last, but he just couldn't stay awake The next encounter recorded is that there's a man who brings his demon-possessed son.
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  The disciples were unable to heal him, But Jesus is able to do it instantly The disciples ask him later, Why weren't we able to cast it out?"
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  And Jesus explains, "It's because of your little faith.
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  For truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."
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  But the very next verse, Jesus tells them, "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day."
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  People often like to take these verses out of context that if you have faith, nothing will be impossible for you.
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  But when we read scripture in context, it's pretty difficult to deny that Jesus told us we were going to have problems on this earth The faith that He asks us to exercise is the faith that He will accomplish
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  His will.
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  We're supposed to have surrendered faith, that we believe God can do anything, and when He doesn't, we're not to waver.
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  we're to trust Him that He has a good plan Some people wanna believe that if God doesn't answer your prayer, it's because you didn't have enough faith But true faith is surrender to what God wants to do.
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  It's not trying to force God to do what we want It, true faith believes in the goodness of God, and it trusts Him to do what He knows is best As you and I think about what we're teaching
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  our kids about our faith let's be very careful to not promise them that following Christ means prosperity and blessing at every turn it didn't for Jesus, it didn't for the disciples.
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  it rarely meant it for the people we studied in the Old Testament Walking with Jesus is radical.
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  It's unpredictable.
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  It's sacrificial But his presence is entirely worth it And eternity with Him will be too Heavenly Father, we thank you for the whole counsel of your Word that clarifies who you are and refines our perspective and our expectations
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  for life.
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  Lord, I confess one of my greatest temptations is to expect that life will go well if I honor you I'm so often deceived that I'll reap what I sow But Jesus, I thank you that you know a better
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  way, that you know how to mold and shape our character.
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  And even when you call us to suffering or difficulties That we can trust you're transforming us into the likeness of your Son and that peace and joy and hope and blessings abound for those who walk with you.
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  But it may not look like earthly blessings.
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  We pray that our children would still be drawn to the winsomeness of the gospel and the worthiness of your Son Jesus, we pray that you would draw every one of our children, that they would understand what they're committing
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  to, and that they would take up their cross and follow you knowing that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
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  It's in your matchless name we pray.
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  Amen.