Figuring out faith
And today, the phrase is praise the mount. And we're looking at it through this passage, which includes the disciple Peter, who is
an important figure in the life of the church. What is the mount
It is the mount of God's unchanging love. So praise the mount of God's unchanging love
And God's unchanging love is the source of our confidence. It is the source of our calling as Christians and the church
Those are the two things I'm going to talk about today. But believe it or not, I'm going to talk about more than just those two things, okay
So first, God's unchanging love gives the church confidence in its future, okay
God's unchanging love gives each Christian and the church itself confidence in the future
Jesus says to Peter in the presence of the disciples, I will build my church and the
gates of hell will not overcome it. What a statement. Put it on a bumper sticker if you want, right
Chin up, chest out, have confidence. Listen, everybody, I don't have my glasses on, so I'm going to trust that you do this
Look me in the eye, okay? Look me in the eye. You are the future of the church
You are the future of the church. You may say, Pastor Jason, I'm a teenager
That doesn't matter, does it, adults? Does it? No, it doesn't matter
You're not too young to be the future of the church. You may say, Pastor Jason, I can't be the future of the church
I'm too old. People who think that you're not too old, is that an excuse
No, you can't be too old. Have you ever met Abraham? Simeon? Anna? No
You can retire from work. You never retire from the kingdom of God, right
You are the future of the church. I'm part of Generation X
There's not many of us in the wild. We are the future of the church
Millennials, Gen Y, they grew up never knowing a world without the internet
They grew up in a brand new world, connected, and Christ has a place for you in the world
and in the church. You are the future of the church. Gen Z was born 1997 to 2012
They are politically and socially aware. You are politically and socially aware by default
Some of us had to learn that, but that's by default. They are leading the conversation about caring for the environment
Some of us had to learn that. Their friend groups, your friend groups, are naturally religiously and racially diverse
Some of us had to try to do that. They are the future of the church, right
That's the future of the church. Generation Alpha, born between 2013 and now, they are called Alpha because it's something
brand new, because artificial intelligence is a reality in their life. If you walk into their classroom starting in kindergarten, there's technology everywhere
It is a brand new world, folks. They're going to need a church, and they're going to need a Sunday school that prepares
them for their world, not our world. They are the future of the church
Isn't that amazing? They are the future of the church. The words of Jesus stand
The strongest powers possible have not, do not, will not ever defeat the simple power
of a faithful confession of a follower of Jesus. Insert amen. Oh, there it is. Okay
The future is always changing, isn't it? The future is always changing
But we praise the mount of God's unchanging love. The message never changes
The church always changes. Notice we're the first Dutch reformed church of Poughkeepsie
So about 200 years ago, the consistory of this church said, well, men and women, looks
like the British have it. We should probably start speaking English. And they had to make the hard decision for them to convert the liturgy from Dutch to English
You think that was an easy conversation to have? I'm glad I'm the pastor now
All right? I'm not Dutch. I'm from Mississippi. Maybe you're listening and you say, but Pastor Jason, I can't be the future of the church
I don't know a lot about Christianity. I don't know a lot about Jesus
I don't know a lot about the Bible. I don't know if I could explain what I believe or why I even believe it
Sometimes the only thing that is needed is to be a faithful and kind person that says
this is what it means to me. And God can use you to be the future of the church
You may say, but Pastor Jason, let me stop you right there because you and I know how
the sentence is going to end. You are the future of the church because Jesus says, no matter who you are, you are the future
of the church. You, you. The future is you and the future is inside of you just waiting to get out
And that is the simple act of praising the mount of God's unchanging love
That's what that's what Peter does in this passage. He, he praises Jesus in the presence of other people
And that is what Jesus looks at him, says, I can build a whole church off of you
Y'all simple as that. Think about it. It goes from him, Peter, and 11 others to 2.8 billion people this weekend
Jesus kept his promise. Right? So it seems like we're doing something very special this morning
Seems pretty plain, doesn't it? Hmm. Something to think about. We just bear witness to God's unchanging love in an ever-changing world
But you have to know something up front. Our confidence is not in ourselves
We're the future of the church. Not because we're the best or the strongest, the most articulate, the most in control
the most steady, or the most faithful church, or the most faithful Christians
We're the future of the church because God always chooses the frail things to do the
most amazing things. And some of you need to hear this. Somebody listening, either here or online, needs to hear this
You look at the cracks in your life, and you don't know if God can use you to do something positive
And you need to hear me, and you maybe need to write this down now or later
You look at the cracks in your life, and you need to hear me say this
God's light shines through cracks the best. God has always used the frail things to do amazing things
It's easy to feel like you are a blessing to the world when you are on your A-game. Right? Woo
I am blessing God today. But when you mess up, when you realize that you have failed, let down yourself or your
loved ones, that is when it is tough to think that God could use someone like you
Our hope is and always will be God's unfailing love. Right
It's God. God has always used people like this. That's why it's important for us to think about Peter, because if you've listened to
the sermons the past three or four weeks, Peter's confession may catch you as a surprise
because Peter has already doubted Jesus twice. This is the winter before Jesus will be arrested
So in about four months, Jesus is going to be betrayed, arrested
Peter is going to run away. He is going to deny Jesus three times
And then Jesus asks Peter this question, Peter, in your opinion, and he says, well, you're
the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And Jesus looks at him and sees Peter, warts and all, and says, I can build a whole church
with somebody like you. It's beautiful. So if Jesus can build a whole church with Peter, what can the Lord do with us
Now I'm not saying that we're better than Peter, but put us in a barrel together, we
might be equal to like one and a half Peter, right? So we should expect God to do very good things in Poughkeepsie through this congregation
Some of you don't know me at a personal level. You only know me at this level
But I hope that however you know me, you know this about me
I believe in Jesus. And I know that Jesus believes in the church
And I believe those two things the strongest. And that should give us confidence to enter Dutchess County, to enter Poughkeepsie, and
to enter any point of our life and just be humble servants with kindness and patience
and just serve people and be faithful witnesses. So we go into a changing future, but we should know the future always has challenges, right? Right
Future has challenges. This building was built in 1921
That plaque right there. This plaque right here. You should read those two plaques today because this congregation went through two world wars
within 25 years of this sanctuary being built. And these men were baptized probably with water from that font, were taught in a Sunday
school classroom under which you are seated right now. And congregants where you're sitting made baptismal vows to those people
The future is filled with challenges. Think about that. It's always filled with challenges
But Jesus walks with us to face those challenges. It's amazing. In our passage, Jesus says, the gates of hell
Our English translation is very sensitive and calls it Hades, which maybe we should appreciate
I don't know. All right. So Jesus and his disciples have gone to a city called Caesarea Philippi, which is 25
miles north of the Sea of Galilee. This is 25 miles in my scale. Okay
You notice that? I know. This is as far north as Jesus ever goes
When King Herod, you remember King Herod, that naughty, naughty boy, when he dies, his
son Philip takes over this region. He renames the city in honor of himself and in honor of Caesar
So that's Caesar Philip, Caesarea Philippi. Okay. The city was important. It was at the base of Mount Hermon
It was a major cave system filled with water. So it was the major source of water for the Jordan River
It had this huge cistern water cave system where divers would go in
In ancient times, they could never find the bottom of this. In Greek mythology, they built, this was the place where the Greek god Pan was worshipped
They had a temple to Pan. They called it a grotto. It was basically a temple or an altar carved out of the mountainside, out of the stone
They would worship Pan there. And they believed in Greek mythology that in the springtime, the spirits of the underworld
would travel from the underworld through the cave system, through the water into the outer
world where you and I would exist. So that cave system was known as the doorway to hell or the gates of hell
So Jesus is having this conversation with the disciples in that place, with the rock
with the gates. Okay. That's the setting here. The city's name before Philip renamed it was Pannaeus
So when people would be in the cave system, they would become paranoid, thinking that
they were hearing voices and noises of these unseen spirits. And they would get panicked, which is where we get the word panic
Isn't this interesting? Mysterious forces, frightful, panic
Jesus says, upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail
And this calms our heart. It doesn't cause us to panic. It does the opposite
It gives us confidence as the voice of Jesus speaks to us
The future will always have challenges. So what's the church's calling
The church's calling is this. We see it in Peter's confession. You're the Messiah, the son of the living God
Peter witnesses to his faith in the presence of other people. And Jesus responds, on this rock, I will build my church
I'm going to unpack those phrases, okay? You are the Messiah, son of the living God
On this rock, I will build my church. All around the world right now, the phrase, on this rock, is being picked apart
Some are saying the rock upon which Christ builds the church is Peter himself because
Peter would become, in their view, the first pope. Now, people who don't like the idea of a pope are saying, well, it could never be Peter
We don't build a church off a person. And so they make it the rock upon which Jesus builds the church, Peter's confession
You can't have one without the other, right? You can't have one without the other
Both arguments are actually convincing, by the way, like if you read it, and there's
like, a bunch of, like, Greek language involved. So have at it if you want
There's a lot of books if you want to spend the afternoon. But you can't have one without the other
And you can't build a church unless a believer owns their faith and talks to people about it
Jesus says, I will build my church off the simple profession of a Christian
On this rock, I will build my church. If you bear witness in the presence of other people, I will build the church
The church cannot be built without people owning their faith and bearing witness
In front of other people. That's why I say, you are the future of the church
The church cannot be built without you, without your voice, without your presence
That's how important you are. Okay? That's how important you are. You wake up on Sunday morning, you should look at yourself in the mirror and say
look at how important I am. Look at how important I am
You are the future of the church. And, I mean, I really mean it when I say it
Jesus, in all humility, has chosen to build the church through people like us
It's an honor. It's an honor to be able to do this
Often when we think about evangelism, and nobody likes that word, by the way
Not even Christians like that word, okay? But often when we think about evangelism, we think about evangelism being about when
we talk about Jesus to people who are not Christians. But evangelism, the root word means to good news somebody
It's when you talk about the good news of God's love to somebody
But actually what we're doing in a worship service is evangelism. We are bearing witness in the presence of each other to God's unfailing love
Every seven days, we need to remind each other of God's unfailing love, right
I don't know about you, but it's kind of like my bucket springs a leak
And I need it refilled every seven days. Actually, I need it refilled every day
I need to pray every day. I need to read every day. I need to call to mind the goodness of God every day
And the way that we do that is by bearing witness in the public act of worship
In worship, we are bearing witness to one God, Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit
In worship, we are bearing witness to this thing. We believe in a thing called grace
Aren't you glad that you're in a tradition that believes in something called grace
Aren't you happy to be in a tradition that says that God bases your relationship with God
not on your performance? I mean, 52 weeks in a year? I mean, who knows
I might have a really good October. But that leaves a lot of other months, right
We bear testimony week after week after week that that is not how God relates to us
We bear witness to God's unchanging love, that it is not changing based on whether I am doing well
or not doing well. God's love is constant. We are the ones that are changing
God is not changing. Next week, at this table, we will bear witness to the mystery of our faith
Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. Notice, we confess the mystery of our faith
I love that we say that. We confess what we hope in
We also confess to the mystery of our faith, to the limits of our knowing
So, I'm going to wrap up here in just a few minutes
I'm using the phrase bear witness intentionally. You've noticed, I don't spend a lot of time on Sunday morning trying to convince attendees
about the existence of God. You ever notice that? I don't try to convince people about the authenticity of the Hebrew, Greek
and Aramaic manuscripts. I don't really talk much about the hypostatic union of Jesus where he's 100% God and 100% human
I belong to a gym where I work out. No one at that gym is trying to convince me of the merits of good nutrition or whether exercise
is good for you. They're bearing witness by their presence and their action what they believe
Everybody's welcome there, right? So, it is with us. We believe it is good and right to bear witness to the things I just spoke about because that is how
God builds the church and that is how God builds strong Christians
What we do on Sunday morning is the most important thing. It's not the only important thing we do, it is the most important thing
Not just because of the sermon, not just because of the songs, not just because of the prayer
but because you need to see in Poughkeepsie that there are other Christians around you
who will be there for you and the friendships that we make together
That's how important it is today. Now, you noticed, by the way, in the scripture reading, the very last verse is surprising, isn't it
Look at that last verse. Everybody look real quick. Now, what have I just been talking about
And Jesus sternly told them, don't you dare talk about this. They are in hostile territory and they are nowhere near ready to take on the task of being able to defend the faith
Or maybe they would be killed. Anyway, it's descriptive of them, it is not prescriptive of us
Descriptive of them, not prescriptive of us. As a matter of fact, within nine months, they would leave their city, they would leave their town
they would leave their region, some of them would leave the country
some of them would no longer worship at the temple, some of them would no longer worship in a synagogue
some of them would start meeting in homes, some of them would start new traditions
of having what we call the Lord's Supper in homes. They were willing to change it all so that people would be willing, be able to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ
The future always has challenges and God works with us in the future
The message doesn't change, but we change. Okay. I'm going to finish this because it's so beautiful how Peter bears witness
And then we're going to worship God together. Listen to how Peter bears witness
You are Jesus Christ, the son of the living God. You are not Pan, the son of Hermes, the son of Zeus
You are not Pan, the son of Hermes, the son of the God of lore
You are not Pan, the God carved out of stone, the God who cannot move unless we move you
You are Jesus, the son of the very God who lived with my parents and my grandparents and their parents before them
You are the son of God who lives with me and my children. You are the son of the very God who will live with my grandchildren and their children and their children's children
You are the God who will live in the future beyond my time on earth
You are the son of the living God. You are not made by human hands, but you have a life of your own
You are not made by human hands, but you use human hands to shape the destiny of the earth
You use human hands to build the church. You are the God who is always with us in the chaos and the obstacles of the future
You live and move with us into the future. You are the Christ, the child of the God who lives with us in the future
This is why, church, the Bible tells us that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever
God is always existing. God is always constant. Therefore, we praise the mount of God's unchanging love
It's a mystery. It's a marvel. We have a wonderful Messiah. Therefore, we should praise the mount
You are the future of the church. Let the future out. Let it out
Live it. Praise the Lord, because Christ can build a whole church with someone like you