Jesus: Messiah

This series of sermons was born out of a desire to spend time reflecting on Jesus and the various roles he assumes in the faith.

The first has to do with Jesus as Messiah.

Matthew 16:13-20

Jesus challenges his disciples to declare their understanding of his ministry and mission. Peter ultimately declares that Jesus the long awaited Messiah of Israel. Jesus commends his answer, but not his expectations. Peter’s expectations of the Messiah where those of many Jews at the time: Messiah would come to save Israel from their oppressors and destroy their enemies.

When Jesus told the disciples that he would be killed and rise on the third day be raised, it was too much for Peter to fathom. The same thing happend when John the Baptist was in jail.

Jesus had to change their expectations of the Messiah. Messiah would come to conquer, but the conquest would begin with death and resurrection and happen first in the heart.

In the same way we often have own expectations of what Jesus Messiah will do in our lives

Often we want a conquering hero, a Rambo God. We want someone who will come to our rescue and save us from the problems we encounter,  someone to make our lives smooth and trouble free, someone to take all of the struggle out of our lives, someone who will save us from the lot of every other human on the planet, someone who will save us from the consequences of our actions.

Jesus often has to correct our perceptions of Messiah. Most of the time what we really want is a Genie in a bottle and not a Messiah. We want a Messiah who will be at our beck and call and make life comfortable. We want a Messiah who will come and destroy our enemies and deliver us circumstances we do not like. And judge the people we do not like.

But the ministry of Jesus the Christ, at this point in history, is to conqueror and redeem our hearts.

At his point in salvation history Jesus is redeeming and judging from the inside out – where we need it most!

Jesus as Messiah frees us from all the things that bind us to our self-centered lives and offers us to opportunity to live a God-centered life.

Jesus, the Messiah marches boldly into our hearts and begins his work of judgment and redemption.

• He judges our motives, our prejudices and reactions
• He redeems our pain, our brokenness, and our bitterness
• He judges our unforgiveness and our inner rebellion
• He redeems our hopes and our perceptions
• He gives us peace with God and the peace of God that is found in our trust in God no matter the circumstances
• He releases us from the bondage of sin and self-centeredness into the freedom to live as God intended.

Jesus Messiah begins his work in our hearts the same way he started it with Peter. He asks a simple question: “Who do you say I am?”

Look at the evidence…The testimony of Jesus, the lives of those you know as Christians, the testimony of the Holy Spirit. The testimony leads to the conclusion that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.

The only response that makes any sense is the same response that Jesus asked of Peter and the rest of the disciples — to lay down our lives for our Messiah, to follow in his footsteps.

There will come a time when everything will be put right. There will come a time when judgment will fall. There will come a time when every tear will be wiped away. But it is not hear yet. So, until that day we give ourselves completely to Messiah. Our biggest problems in life stem from the fact that Jesus doesn’t measure up to our expectations of what a Messiah should be.

Every one of the disciples performed miracles, raised the dead and saw many baptized into the way of Jesus Messiah, but they also suffered tremendously and rejoiced in spite of it. Maybe the problem is not Jesus, but our expectations. Some may say that is not enough, Paul thought it was.

So what do we do? We allow the mission and ministry of Jesus Messiah to shape our lives, our expectations and our future. There may be many things happen in this life as we journey with Jesus; many things we do not understand. But we do know this: we walk with Jesus.