You Are The Christ
Notes
The Lord be with you!
We will bless the LORD from this time forth and forevermore.
Praise the LORD!
This is the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, and we know that it is not Peter himself but rather the confession that Peter made, “You are the Christ,” is praised and extolled this week as the true foundation of the Church, which shall prevail forever. All who confess Jesus as the Lord who has saved us all will be granted to know Him and walk in the way of eternal life, as the collect says.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, whom to know is everlasting life, grant us to know Your Son, Jesus, to be the way, the truth, and the life that we may boldly confess Him to be the Christ and steadfastly walk in the way that leads to life eternal; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Isaiah 51:1–6
God’s arms administer both justice and mercy. We love to look to Him for setting things right, for making those evil foes see a swift demise. Yet we must even more intently look for the arm of His forgiveness, the arm that wipes out our sins and dries our tears of repentance. We need not fear the adversaries who threaten and bluster their way into our path. We are rocks, you might say; we’re cut from the One who is the Rock, quarried from a Savior who assures us of His never-failing love and guidance.
Romans 11:33—12:8
It often helps you when you study a chapter of Scripture, that you read the end of the previous chapter, if applicable, and pick up on any similar words in the one that follows it. At the end of chapter 11, when Paul takes us on a journey that leads to the very fringe edges of God’s mysterious ways, he bursts out into a doxology of praise to God, asking “Who has known the mind of the Lord?” Then, in the next chapter, the Apostle entreats all of us to break ourselves free from the sinful, self-centered world around us and “be transformed by the renewal of [our] minds.” We won’t ever know God’s mind on some particular questions that are beyond us, but we will have the mind of Christ, that is, the self-sacrificing motivation that takes our faith in Jesus, and puts it into action of love toward our neighbor.
Matthew 16:13–20
Caesarea Philippi is a Roman city in Northern Galilee that features a very tall cliff etched in the foothills of the Golan Heights. Out from under this cliff comes a gushing spring of cool water that flows into the lush, green valley below. Carved into the cliff were dozens of niches that held various idols, gods that were understood to have been responsible for this oasis in an otherwise barren land. With all these opinions of flesh and blood men looking down on Jesus and the disciples, He asked them, Who do people say that I am? But the one confession that mattered is the one that God the Father revealed to Peter and allowed Him to speak boldly with faith: You are the Christ, Son of the living God.
Here’s Hymn 645, stanza 5:
Grant, then, O God, Your will be done,
That, when the church bells are ringing,
Many in saving faith may come
Where Christ His message is bringing:
“I know My own; My own know Me.
You, not the world, My face shall see.
My peace I leave with you. Amen.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
My family and I are on our way back home this week, so please pray for our safe journey. As the Lord wills, we look forward to seeing you next Sunday!
Pastor Stirdivant