“God’s People Confess the Christ of God”
June 23, 2013
The 5th Sunday of the Christian Season of Ordinary Time/Kingdomtide/Time of the Church
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THE 21ST FOUNDATION DAY OF THE CHARISMATIC EPISCOPAL CHURCH
Zechariah 12: 8 - 10; 13: 1/Psalm 63: 1 – 8/Galatians 3: 23 – 29/ Luke 9: 18 - 24
His Eminence
The Most Reverend Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines D.D.
Archbishop of Manila
and
Primate
of the
National Church in the Philippines
and
the Territorial Church of Asia
International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church
The Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time or Kingdomtide is a time wherein God has bestowed upon mankind awesome, marvelous hope and ability. Christ has identified with us in the flesh. He has taken the sin of all men and taken it to the cross. He died in our place, paying the penalty for our failures. He went into Sheol, conquered hell, destroyed the power of evil, and took away the power of the enemy. He rose again on the third day giving to mankind new life.
An awesome chain of events that has been given to us as God’s people. This period of time in the Church calendar is a time wherein we are challenged and encouraged to live out what God has given to us. In the gospel today, Jesus asked the disciples, “Who did the people say that I am?” The response is very humanistic. But then, when He finishes with the discussion, He asked His disciples themselves, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter responds by saying, “You are the Christ of God.” Immediately, Christ responds to Peter that was almost like a rebuke, “Don’t tell anybody this.”
I would have thought that perhaps Jesus would have commented on the fact that what Peter said was true. But Jesus knew what was ahead. He also knew what was in the hearts of the people, even in the hearts of the apostles. They did not understand Christ. They did not understand His mission. He had shared with them a number of things a number of times and yet, still, there was that void wherein they were focusing more upon what they say and experienced in life, rather than what the purpose of Christ and the plan of God was.
In our own lives, we also have these same problems. We see so readily the circumstances around us. We see the battles, the conflicts, the pain, the frustrations and the anxieties. We see the lack and the confusion; and it affects us so much that it destroys all that God has given to us because we focus upon it.
When Jesus said, “My peace I give to you,” it is not just an ordinary peace but His peace. How often, in the midst of conflict or trial, we don’t have peace; and yet He has given us that peace? For a moment of time, we lose sight of who Christ is. We don’t see Him as the Messiah, the anointed One. We don’t see Him many times beyond the fact that He redeemed and saved us. Truly, He did redeemed. Truly, He did save us. But that was the only beginning of what He had given in our behalf and what belongs to us.
Galatians 3:26 says, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” He is talking about the baptism, and how that in baptism, we are born into the family of God. We become sons of God. If we are the sons of God and we are walking in life, should we not walk in such a manner that we see ourselves with an anointing which comes from God? A strength that comes from him? A wisdom that He bestows upon us so that we are not overcome by circumstances but we are conquerors in the midst of the trials and the tests?
We keep the joy of our salvation. It cannot be stolen from us by circumstances. We keep the confidence in Him knowing He does not fail. He does not forsake us. The question I believe for us today is: who do you say that Christ is? In your life, in your mind and in your heart, what have you set as an understanding of who He is? What has He done for you? What has He given to you? What are the provisions that are yours?
Jesus did not want it told to the crowds because He knew that ahead of Him He was going to die. He was to be persecuted and to be crucified. He understood all of that, but He understood what He was going to face. He understood that He was going to take the sin of all man. He understood the pain that was going to be there yet He knew His Father and He knew the heart of His Father. He could handle what was ahead of him. He knew His God.
In our lives because many times we have lost sight of who Christ is to us, we do not see, we do not understand, and we do not grasp that these things that perhaps we face are not fatal things but they are opportunities for God to show us the power that He has placed within us. It is to show the authority and the dominion that He has given to man. Sad to say, many times, we give up before we find the answer.
1Peter 2 tells us that He called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. Darkness is that realm of sin, that realm of death that had come upon man because of disobedience of Adam in the Garden. He called us out of that curse. He called us out of that frustration and that anxiety, and He translated us into His marvelous light. Do we understand what that gives to us? Do we grasp the meaning of being brought out of darkness, being brought into His marvelous light?
Peter expressed that we have been called as a holy nation, a royal priesthood, as God’s chosen that we may declare and proclaim His excellencies. Our lives are to reflect this newness that is ours. This life must reflect the hope that has come to us. We are not in despair. We are not in darkness, but we are in light so we have hope and assurance and confidence. Whatever may come our way, greater is He who is with us than he who is against us.
How do you see this life? Do you see it in its problems, its circumstances, its heaviness and its sorrows? Do you see the battles and the conflicts? Are we sinners? Are we in the midst of the result of sin? Or have we been redeemed by Christ? What is that redemption that He has given to us?
I believe that we must acknowledge that we are sinful; but basically, He has taken the nature of sin. In our flesh, we are still weak. In our flesh, we still fail; sinful, but it is not the very essence of our lives. The essence of our lives is now the holiness and the righteousness that God has given to us, through Christ. We keep our eyes on the real goal – on our identity as followers of Christ, as sons of God.
Do we see and have in our minds the fact that we have been brought out of darkness into his marvelous light? In 1Corinthians 2:2, Paul says, “I want to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified.” Why Him crucified? Paul says, “Because it was in this crucifixion that I was set free. It was in that crucifixion that my sin was taken away. This is what I want to constantly remember. I may fail; I may fall; but I have the hope and the assurance of being raised up because of what Christ has done for me.”
Galatians 6:14, “God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross of Jesus Christ.” Is this where our hope is? That Cross? Is this where we believe that we remind ourselves constantly in the Eucharist that we have been redeemed and given new life? In our hearts, if we set our hearts and our minds upon the failure and the defeat, truly, that will be what will overcome us. Proverbs says as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. Do we think redemption? Do we think new life?
Even though we fail, even though these things are all around us, God never promised we would never have problems. He promised that we will be overcomers. We would conquer. We cannot take pride in anything except in the Cross because therein is our redemption. Therein is our new life.
Formerly of darkness, but now you are light in the Lord as what Paul says in Ephesians 5; but he add this: walk in the light. See yourself as that one who brings a light into every situation. Instead of getting into a situation of darkness and bringing more darkness to it, we come into those situations with light. Whether it in the office, in the home, in the school or wherever we are, we come in with the answers that God has given to us. The answers that breaks the darkness and allows Christ to be seen.
In Matthew 5:14, Jesus says, “You are the light of the world.” Do we see the Church? Do we see our lives as that which brings hope, assurance, and confidence to the world? As we come into this Season of Kingdomtide, do we come into it with the assurance and the hope that with Christ, we have answer? That with Christ, we have a solution? That with Christ, we have light to break the darkness? Or do we see every day with fear, anxiety? Do we see every situation with fear, with defeat? Do we enter into all these things with despair? Or do we come into them realizing, “The Lord is with me. He will not forsake me. He will not fail me. He will not put me to shame as long as I walk with Him and set my course according to that which He has given to us.”
In John 8:12, Jesus speaks, “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Do you believe that you have the light of life? Instead of seeing life as heavy, sad and sorrowful, life that is with struggle and battle, do you see that you have the hope within you that changes that situation and causes it to become good? It changes the sadness into joy; the confusion into peace; the hatred into love; the bitterness into forgiveness. This is what the light is. This is what Christ has given to us.
1Corinthians 3:3, “Since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” The challenge to us: do people see us different? Do people see us as an answer? Do people see us with hope, assurance, and confidence? It should be. This is what our lives bring forth.
2Corinthians 4:7, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing greatness and power may be of God and not from ourselves.” Do we trust God? Do we believe that He has set us free? Do we understand we have a new life and a new hope that comes from Him?
The question Jesus would ask you and me, “Who do you say that I am? For many, He is only their Savior. He only redeemed them from sin. The question that should then follow is, “Why did He redeem me from sin? What was the purpose of it? What was the purpose of bringing me out of the darkness? Just so that I would be in the light?” No, it is so that we can be His witness that we can show others how it is to be in the kingdom of God. – the joy; the assurance; the peace that is ours.
Redemption, strength, restoration, peace, joy, provision, protection, security – all of these are part of what belongs to us. If you want to know more, read the book of Paul to the church of Colossae. This is what belongs to us. We are not in despair; we are not in poverty; we are not in want. Peter says that He has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness.
We are a blessed people. It is time that we begin to realize and to set a course and a direction in our lives so that we can demonstrate the greatness, the provision of God. Instead of the murmuring and complaining, we bring glory and praise to God because of all that He has done for us.
We may not be able to excellent in the gifts that He has given, but we begin to walk in them – one step at a time. As we take that step, the gift becomes more and more a part of our lives. It becomes more evident in our lives as we use it over and over again. The first time, we might stumble and fail, but we change from glory to glory into the image of our God.
This is the hope that we have in Him. This is why even in the confession of sin, it says that your sins from the past are all forgiven and wiped away. This is God – His greatness when we confess before Him, the hope that we have in Him. Not despair; not anxiety but peace and joy.
Who do you say Christ is to you? We need to know Him like Paul. It is just to know Him – nothing more important but to know Him. Know Him so that we understand what He is doing in our lives. I believe many times, we cast them out when He is working in us. We did not see the purpose. We did not see the plan and we thought it was the enemy; when in reality, it was God at work; preparing us for greater things.
May we call Him the Christ of God. May we see Him as the anointed One; the answer to our needs. Maybe not according to the way we see things. This is why Jesus did not want the disciples to tell the people that He was the Messiah because what they were looking for was deliverance from Rome. They did not realize that Christ came to deliver them from something far greater than Rome – from the sin; from the iniquity. He came to set them free. They thought it was Rome that He came to deliver them from. He did not want them to think that so He said, “Don’t tell them who I am. It is not the time. The time will come.”
When we find that time, that hope is ours. In Zechariah, it talks about how the Jews recognized they had crucified the wrong one. It was prophetic. They mourned the fact that they had crucified Him and when they did, He took away their sin and He defended them and He destroyed their enemies. This is the hope we have in Christ.
Who do you say that Christ is?
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