Matt. 16:13-18
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “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 are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
It's a pretty awesome account. Here the disciples are, following their teacher--Jesus--and he asks a seemingly benign question. "Who do people say I am?" Then he brings the question to them: "Who do you say I am?" I wonder if he knew that Simon had already been shown the truth? Maybe it was for the benefit of the other disciples he asked. I don't know. But what a powerful moment! I think because we know the end of the story we often don't realize just how big of a deal it was that Simon named Jesus as "the Son of the living God." Jesus was thought of as a teacher, a prophet, to some a heretic, but even those who could call him Messiah most likely had a picture of another king David. A human after God's own heart who would overthrow Rome and set up an earthly Kingdom for the Jews. No one was walking around calling him God. (Well, except for Jesus himself.)
And here is part of what Johnson said that made me think we were going to go into the "you're saved, you're all good" direction. He pointed out that Peter didn't come to this conclusion all on his own, but it was revealed through the Spirit of God, and that is how it is for us as well. We don't figure God out because we're so smart. He reveals himself to us--often through other people. Which is true! But I thought he was going to launch into "once saved, always saved--yay you're saved, stop doing so much and relax."--Again, sorry Johnson!!
So here Peter is, speaking the ultimate truth of exactly who Jesus is. And yet, in a few more verses, he's about to botch the whole thing.
Matthew 16:21-23
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Oh, Peter. You had it. Jesus is "The Messiah. The Son of the Living God." So first off, what makes you think it's a good idea to rebuke him?? Secondly, why do you think you would have a better idea than his? But we do this, don't we? "God, I'm not sure you know this, but _________ is going on and I think you should respond by ____________." And, as Johnson pointed out, Jesus' response to us is most likely the same response he gave to Peter: "You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns."
Jesus goes on in this chapter to say, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?"
I discovered that Johnson wasn't trying to say that we shouldn't be about the things of God. Contrarily, he was telling us that Jesus calls us to die to self! But he was cautioning us against doing "more." It's an easy trap to fall into. The thought that we need "more" programs at church, we need to serve "more" we need to do "more" missions... etc. He said that we need to be careful not to get so busy doing things for God that we miss living life with him. Sound familiar? Yep. Here it was again. Abide. If I hadn't been part of many many similar events as a speaker and coordinator I would have sworn that all the speakers got together and said, "Hey, let's talk about the same thing!" But I know better. At events like this, the speakers are given a topic (or asked what topic they'd like to discuss) and left to their own devices. They usually have never met, and, depending on how busy they are at the conference, don't even meet at the event.
So, why did all of these messages fit so well together? Yep, you guessed it--God. I have to say, when I signed up for a "Discipleship Conference" I had expected more of a "this is how to go about making disciples." And there was some of that. What I didn't expect was to do to a discipleship conference and hear over and over again "Abide." And the crazy thing is, you could talk with my college students and they would probably have a different byline that strung through all the messages. It's just how amazing our God is.
So, back to the session: Johnson went on to say that doing things for God rather than living life with Him is a quick road to burnout or worse. Think about some of the "influential" Christians you have known who ended up coming out and saying that they no longer believed in the Christian faith. Many of them did so much for God. And yet... Johnson suggested that a way for us to avoid a similar fate was to change our question from "What can I do for God?" to "How can I spend time with God?" This doesn't mean that we do nothing. But it does mean we ask, "are we about the things of God, or the things of Man?" We spend time with Him and find out where and how He wants us to join in on His work. We have to be honest with ourselves about why we do what we do. Is it for God's glory... or our own? Because it's all too easy for us to get our identity wrapped up in doing and turn into an odd sort of Idol, or worse, turn ourselves into the Idol. So we seek to abide in Christ and die to self. "For what would it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?"
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