A Tale of Two Churches: Belong - Acts 2:1-14, Matthew 16:13-18

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It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom. It was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief. It was the epoch of incredulity. It was the season of light. It was the season of darkness. It was the spring of hope. It was the winter of despair. We had everything before us. We had nothing before us. We were all going direct to heaven. We were all going direct the other way.  

In other words: the more things change, the more things stay the same.  

Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities was about Paris and London. Over the next few weeks we will look at two other cities: Jerusalem and Corinth, and the churches who called those cities home. 

This week we begin at the beginning. The building blocks of the Church. We're beginning with where the Church comes from. We begin with a question, and its answer.  

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I am a Christian. I am part of my church, and part of the great historic, eternal Church. I am a follower of the way of Jesus, who is the Christ. I am a middle joint on a pinky finger on the body that is His great family on earth.  

When I read in Luke 19:19-31 the parable of one man who lived eternity in Heaven, and one man who lived eternity away from Heaven, in Gehenna, in the in the place of torment, I recognize that as truth. I recognize that there are two eternal destinies, defined by the gap between them.  

I recognize the truth of spending eternity in awareness of having walked away from God. Somebody has said that “Hell is a state of eternal grief: of regret and lament.”  

I also recognize the reality of spending eternity with God in a state—not of grief, regret and lament—but of joy, adventure, and fulfillment.  

I have chosen a side. I'm looking forward one day to arriving in the place that I have chosen. 

The primary way in which we choose between eternities is by answering the question that Jesus asked Peter that day: 

Who do you say I am? - Matthew 16:15 

That is the question.  

To accurately to truthfully answer, I think we need to hear Him ask it. We need to meet Jesus.  

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Meeting Jesus happens differently for different people and I want to look at 3 examples from the Bible. We often hear people say there are many ways to God. As Christians, we would say there is one way to God, but there are many paths to finding Jesus. Jesus is the only gate, but there are many paths to the gate. These three people all met Jesus, but came to that moment in different ways. 

First: Simon Peter. 

Simon met Jesus through a friend.  

Simon was just a regular guy. He lived in a small town, finished high school, went into the family business. Got married. Built a house. Learned his trade. Paid his taxes. Worshipped his God. 

He must have heard about this guy who had come on the scene called ‘John the Baptizer.’ John the Baptizer was big news—the first prophet in Israel in 300 years. People were going out to the wilderness to hear him preach.  

Prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight paths for Him. - John 1:23 (Isaiah 40 :3)

People were excited about John’s message: Messiah is coming! 

But sermons apparently didn't make the same impression on Peter as they did on his brother Andrew; Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptizer. He had gone to hear, and he had stayed because he knew that there was something going on with John the Baptizer. 

One day John the Baptizer was out in the wilderness as always, preaching about the coming of the Messiah, preaching repentance to prepare your heart for that day. 

...when [John] saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” ...Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John’s testimony. - John 1:36-40 

John's preaching made such an impression on Andrew that... Andrew walked away. He walked away from John to follow Jesus. But... 

He first found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah.” :41 

Maybe it was Holy Spirit whispering to Simon. Or maybe it was just the indulgence of a big brother, but Simon came along to meet Andrew's supposed Messiah. 

When they got to where Jesus was, Jesus looked at Peter. And Jesus said, basically, “Simon Johnson! I'm going to call you Rocky” (John 1:42). 

John the Baptizer was an actual prophet from God. He was legit turning people's lives around, bringing them through to a truer faith in Yahweh God. But all that fire and eloquence and scripture and preaching was not what connected with Peter. Peter’s life turned a corner when a friend introduced him to Jesus. When his little brother said, “Come and see what I found.”  

When Peter met Jesus, he started on a life long journey of following Jesus that led him to answer the question, “Who do you say I am?” with, “You know what? Andrew was right. You are the Messiah. You are the son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). 

Peter met Jesus through the testimony of a friend.  

Next: Paul (his Greek name. He was also known by his Hebrew name Saul). 

Saul met Jesus in combat.  

He was a faithful Jewish worshipper. He knew about Jesus. About the damage He'd done. He knew about the gullible fools who abandoned their true faith and got sucked into this ridiculous new thing where people were worshipping a man who was publicly executed, pronounced dead by people who knew what dead looked like, and buried. Saul had seen first hand the impact that this ridiculous new religion was having on his people. Saul had seen Stephen.  

Stephen was a leader in the first church in Jerusalem. He was in charge of the food bank, making sure that people who were hungry got fed. There was more to that job, clearly, than driving the truck and maintaining the database: 

Stephen was full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. - Acts 6:8

Stephen was making an impact in his community, so he was framed up on some false charges. During his trial, when he had the floor, he preached the whole great story of God, all the way through the prophets. He showed how God used ordinary people to bring about the salvation of all of creation.  

Stephen was convicted of blasphemy, and sentenced to death.  

They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. ...The witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul... And Saul was there, giving approval to Stephen’s death.... Saul ravaged [set out to ruin, destroy] the Church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. - Acts 7:58, 8:1, 3 

 This sparked something in Saul: 

He approached the high priest  and requested letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women belonging to the way, he could bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem. - Acts 9:1-2 

Saul got his documents and his permission. He set out on his mission. He was on the road to Damascus. Things had gone so well in Jerusalem, he was looking forward to really good success in shutting this thing down in Damascus.  

What comes to mind, as I picture Saul trotting along the road to Damascus on his horse, is a quote from an old Charlie Brown movie. “For one brief moment, victory was in our grasp. And then the game began.” 

Things looked good for Saul, and then... Jesus showed up.  

As Saul drew near to Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus...”  - Acts 9:3-5  

‘I am Jesus. You’ve been hunting Me. Well, here I am.’ And all of Saul's rightness, all of his bitterness, all of his hostility, all of his ambition, ran down that Damascus road and smack into the truth, and it shattered. All of those people he’d locked up. Those people who’d died with Jesus’ names on their lips... This, he now understood, this was why they had done that.  

Paul met Jesus in a smackdown, dukes-up, toe-to-toe, face-to-face confrontation, and he answered the question, “Who do you say I am?” with the word, “Lord.”  

Third: Mary. She lived with her sister and her brother in Bethany, near Jerusalem. Mary met Jesus in everyday, ordinary life.  

As Jesus and His crew came and went from Jerusalem, they needed a stopping place for the night, a place to rest on their journey. They were welcomed into the home of Martha, Mary's sister, and they would turn up on the doorstep, to share meals and sleep on the couch. They became friends. When Mary's brother Lazarus died, Jesus wept at his grave (Luke 10).

When Mary met Jesus, there were no lights from heaven. Nobody grabbed her arm and dragged her off to meet this Messiah that they had found.

Jesus came to meet Mary in her home. In the most everyday, most familiar place. In the most ordinary situations of life, in friendship and conversation and suppertime: the ordinary human way of becoming a friend.  

A friend who was a teacher; a teacher who made her feel safe enough to sit at the Rabbi's feet, just like the men got to do. Learning just like the men got to do. Growing alongside the other disciples so that she—as one of the disciples—could learn to teach. And moment by moment, day by day, encounter by encounter, Mary answered the question, “Who do you say I am?” 

She answered that question not so much by declarations of faith, as by action. By the way she lived her life. By sitting and learning and growing.  

And most poignantly—most amazingly—by (a week before Jesus was crucified) standing beside her friend as He sat at supper—her friend, who had raised her up, her friend who had taught her who she was—she stood beside Him as He ate his supper, and she poured over Jesus’ head, her treasure of perfume, as an act of love. An act of prophecy, an act of grief, and an act of gratitude. (John 12:1-8) 

That was how Mary answered that question. “Who do you say I am?” 

By living a life that said, “You are the one to whom I give everything. You are the one for whom I give everything.”  

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