Look In The Mirror
Notes
Transcript
If I were to ask you who Jesus is, how would you answer? How you answer is central to what we say is our faith as Christians. It is the same question the author of our letter here was asked.
Jesus asked Peter, “Who do people say that I am?” And the disciples came up with a list of answers. Then Jesus asked, “But who do you say that I am?”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
and Jesus responded, Matthew 16:16
Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus said, referring to Peter, “upon this rock I will build my church.” Such powerful words.
You would think that would boost one’s ego, yet it is only 7 verses later that Jesus is saying to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me.”
Wait, this is Peter? This is the one you just said you would build the church on and now you’re calling him Satan? Look at the rest of that interaction.
But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
I want to emphasize that last part…Matthew 16:23
Matthew 16:23 (ESV)
But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
This is the up and down of Peter’s life. When you read through the Gospels, there is so much written about Peter. We see him at his best taking leadership, and so often it is moments later that we see him contradicting what he had just said or done.
Look In The Mirror
Look In The Mirror
Today we’re continuing on in reading a letter written by this fisherman whose life was utterly changed by a not-so-chance encounter with Jesus. Simon, as his parents named him, and his brother Andrew, were simply working on shore in their boat when Jesus came by and said, “Follow me.”
In following him they’d seen so many unexplainable things, unexplainable unless this man Jesus was who He said He was - the very Son of God. He’d healed Simon’s mother-in-law, and so many others. Simon saw Jesus feed thousands with just a few fish and some loaves of bread. Simon who others saw as simply a fisherman, Jesus called “Cephas”, which means “Rock”, which in the Greek is “Petras” where we get “Peter”.
I think this is why we all tend to like Peter. He’s us.
One moment we see him doing something phenomenal, like walking on water! And then the next he’s crying out for Jesus help because he’s sinking.
One moment he’s professing his undying commitment to Jesus that he would never deny him, and the next he’s denying Jesus not once, not twice, but three times.
This is the man who is writing us this letter. This is the man who was changed by his relationship with Jesus. He was commissioned on the shore of Galilee. Apparently it totally changed the way that he saw himself.
So the question comes to us,
When you look in the mirror, who do you see?
When you look in the mirror, who do you see?
When you think about yourself who do you think yourself to be?
Old? Young? Fat? Thin? Smart? Not so smart? Success? Failure? Special? Insignificant? Who do you see? Who do you think of?
What do you think others think of you? Is that important to you? How do you think about others?
In the past several weeks I have had multiple conversations about people and their value. Some have felt valued; and other’s not so much. And I’ve also talked with people about where they find their value.
Do you get your value from your successes/failures?
Do you get your value from your family?
Do you get your value from what other’s think of you? Actually that’s probably better put, “What you think others think of you?”
What Peter shares for us in our text today is begin with the whole idea of renewal, continuing on from what we spoke of last couple of weeks and the idea of being born again, we’re no longer the person we were before. In Christ we are constantly being made new.
If anyone understands the idea of being renewed it’s got to be Peter, right?
And he also understood the idea of rejection. Peter was imprisoned for his faith, he was told not to preach the name of Jesus as the Christ anymore, and yet he could not stop! I imagine the words of Jeremiah perhaps echoed in his mind:
If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
He reminds us that Jesus was rejected, quoting Isaiah:
For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
and v. 7
So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
Isn’t it ironic that Peter, the one that was called the rock, is quoting the prophecies of Jesus in Scripture that refer to the Messiah as “the stone”.
But those builders, these who disobey God’s Word are not the one’s who define who you are. Peter writes to the believers:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Listen to that again,
YOU are:
a chosen race - Dt. 10:15, Isaiah 43:20.
a royal priesthood - Exodus 19:6; Rev 1:6 and 5:10; Isaiah 61:6; 66:21.
a holy nation - Deut 7:6.,
a people of his own possession - Ex 19:5; Dt. 7:6; Is 43:21; Malachi 3:17.
And for what purpose? What is the reason?
1 Peter 2:9 (ESV)
...that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
He then speaks of their conversion again in verse 10, because it is our conversion, our walking into the light if you will, and recognizing the Lordship of Jesus Christ that has made us different.
Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Titus 3:5 tells us that it’s not by works of righteousness that we have done, but it is according to God’s mercy we are saved. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that it is by grace that we are saved through faith and this is not of ourselves, it is a gift from God.
This is WHO your are. Do not let others define you. Do not let your most recent success or failure define you.
I’ve heard so many times from people struggling statements of revenge, or proving oneself to others in some way. The question is “Why do you give them that Kind of power over your life?”
We began by asking the question of "When you look in the mirror who do you see?”
Don’t look at yourself from a worldly perspective; see yourself as God sees you.
Chosen.
Royal.
Priesthood.
Holy.
This is not by your own effort, it is the value God gives you and sees in you.
So knowing you are chosen, royal, among the priesthood, holy, how might that change your perspective?
How might that change your actions?
How might that change the way you treat others?
Peter challenges us to live knowing these things to the glory of God.
Look In The Mirror
Look In The Mirror
As Christians we need to take seriously our own self-examination. When we see in our life actions, emotions, thoughts that are not in line with being chosen, a royal priesthood, and holy we need to confess them. We need to put off the old self and live as the new person that God has created us to be, renewed, born again into this new life in Christ. That is the challenge of living as a Christian.
You are given value by God, and if you doubt how much remember Jesus laid his life down for yours.
So when you look in the mirror don’t see young, old, fat, thin, success, failure, see the child of God that you are, valued, renewed, empowered, chosen.
We all want to be chosen. When I was in grade school I was not the athletic physical specimen you see standing before you today. Please stifle your laughter you might wound my ego. One day the boys were going to play basketball. The two shortest in our class were chosen as the captains of the basketball teams. Jim Douglas and Kurt Palmer. Jim got to choose first, and he chose me! I was so excited - it was the first and last time I was ever chosen first in our gym class.
We huddled at the center court and Jim looks at me and say, “Okay Murph, all I want you to do is get the rebound.”
“Great! What’s a rebound?” I asked. They laughed. Embarrassed I thought to myself, “great, they think I was joking.” And I pretended to laugh with them.For the rest of that class Jim and my classmates kept yelling at me because I wasn’t doing what I was supposed to do.
They looked at the outside - I was the tallest in my class. I was a good choice for a basketball team. They missed the inside - I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
The world looks at our outside - they see the physical, our successes and failures, etc. and they judge who we are. They do not define us. Do not let them do so. What is on the inside does come out. We need to identify ourselves the way God sees us - that brings glory to God.