THE FAITH THAT LASTS (5 OF 7)
by Roger Thomas
Scripture: MATTHEW 16:13-20
This content is part of a series.
The Faith That Lasts (5 of 7)
Life with Peter series
Roger Thomas
Matthew 16:13-20
August 12, 2001
Introduction—As a church of people who are committed to following and honoring Jesus, we have three cardinal objectives that we are attempting to accomplish—three big jobs that we intend to do. If we manage these, we will have accomplished our mission as a church. If we miss any of these, we will have failed to build anything that lasts.
Our cardinal objectives are these—We are endeavoring to build a church of people who 1) believe the Great Confession; 2) practice the Great Commandment; and 3) work together to fulfill the Great Commission. I mention this because our text is the foundation of objective #1. We will examine that in some detail today. On another occasion, we will look at objectives 2 and 3.
We are in the midst of several messages from the life of the Apostle Peter, one of Jesus' twelve disciples. As we explore key events in this First Century believer's life, we are looking for a Big Idea or Life Lesson that we can apply to our own lives. Today's text outlines in a remarkable way the content, the substance, of the faith that makes one a Christian. For two years, the disciples had followed Jesus. As the shadow of the cross looms larger, he takes them away from the crowds, sits them down, and begins to question them about the foundation of their faith. When the testing times come not just any faith will do. It must be real. It must be the kind that lasts. That is no less true today than then.
Most often I tend to take a passage, overview it, and attempt to draw out the big lessons without spending much time on the details. Today I want to analyze this text piece by piece, verse by verse. We'll start with Vs 13—When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" Jesus took his disciples on a rare road trip out of their home country, probably to get away fro ...
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