Well, in honor of Jerry Amon—good morning.
Adero, somebody over here did good. Is that Pack? Now I have to do it again. Good morning.
How many people here love to get free stuff? Not many. Well, I won’t make the offer.
How many know this transcript? It’s called The Heavenly Vision, a ministry Brother Kong led in 1988 at the first Harvey Cedars Conference. I put a stack of them over there. After we speak, there’s one available for each family if you don’t have one—and if you promise to read it.
Don’t take it home to put on your bookshelf. I have a bookshelf full of books. A lot of them, I pick up and read, and they’re all underlined. I say, “When did I ever read that? That’s all new.” Anyway.
Lord, we thank You for being able to be together today, to come to Your table and remember our Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. We just commit this time to You and pray that You would really meet us and speak to us. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The twenty-eighth of this month is a big day. Many of you might not realize it: my birthday. I’m going to be sixty-five. I just got on Medicare. Anyway, forget that. What a nightmare.
The last few years, something different has happened to me. The Lord will give me a verse. I won’t have been studying that subject, but just kind of in passing, or maybe something will come to mind. It is a simple verse, but it comes to me quite a bit, to where I have to think about it.
It is not a new verse, but it tends to be something short and sweet and to the point. What I want to talk about today is a verse that the Lord has been putting on my heart. The last time I spoke, it was, “You must be born again.”
Now I wonder if the Lord would ask us a question: “But who do you say that I am?” Matthew 16 is where we’re headed.
The Lord, as He was preparing and beginning to set His focus toward the cross, had this discourse with His disciples. He asked them, “Who do you say that I am?” So I would encourage us all to ask, “Who do I say that You are, Lord?”
Then I think I want to really look at Peter’s response. What did he say?
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
It strikes me so much how important that testimony would be in my life: to know the Lord personally, experientially. We cannot really be Christians, and we cannot be about His purpose, unless we know Him.
It is so easy to know about Him. We can live on secondhand knowledge, secondhand information. “Well, Tom said, Stephen Kong said, T. Austin-Sparks said.” Some say this, and some say that. But who do you say that I am?
It strikes me that we’re not going to make it unless we know Jesus personally and experientially. Everything is wrapped up in Jesus Christ—everything.
We begin with Him. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. We continue with Him as we walk daily in His presence, in His life. Christ is our life.
And we finish with Him. We gain the goal, we win the prize, and we finish the race by gaining Christ. He is the only way. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is the way, the truth, and the life. We need to be those people: Christ in us, who know Him experientially.
Knowing Him and walking with Him is, in some ways, a beginning. There is a goal in view. There is a purpose. God has called each of us with a great purpose: to be His co-workers in fulfilling His purpose, to know Him experientially, and to know His purpose worked out in Christ and in His church.
So we are going to go through some verses today, but in the background is this question: “Who do I say that He is? Who are You to me, Lord?”
Let us read this passage in Matthew 16:13-20.
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
And Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven.
“I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”
Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ.
But who do you say that I am?
I looked at this and thought: God has a purpose. God has called us with a purpose. Think about it: God has called us with a purpose.
Romans 8:28—we are all familiar with it:
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
When we think about God’s purpose, it is common to think that His purpose is to save souls, to save sinners. And that is true. Thank the Lord, He saved me. Thank the Lord, He called me out of darkness into His kingdom. It is wonderful.
He has delivered us from the deeds of darkness. He has delivered us from Satan, death, and sin, and it is wonderful.
But we need to remember that the Lord sent His Son, and His Son, in obedience, went to the cross for a greater purpose. He had a bigger purpose in view. Ephesians 1:9-12 tells us a little bit.
He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him,
with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.
In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose Who works all things after the counsel of His will,
to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
Summing up all things in Christ—Christ having first place in all things. How many have heard this before numerous times?
We need to be careful that familiarity does not anesthetize us. Did I say that right? Can you spell it? I can’t. Anesthetize us.
We need to be careful that we do not despise the things of God. In Laodicea, they talk about a Laodicean spirit, and lately I have been thinking, “What is a Laodicean spirit?”
My definition is, “I can take it or leave it.” I can take it or leave it. I can take God’s calling, His purpose. “I’ve heard that so many times.” I can take it or leave it. God, have mercy on us that we do not leave it.
The vehicle that God has used to accomplish His eternal purpose is His church. Ephesians 3:9-11:
And to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God Who created all things;
so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We have heard these things many times. I think it is so possible to become familiar with them. We get busy with so many things. We are so consumed with our lives. It is totally possible to get derailed and get off track.
We need to be encouraged to keep the main thing the main thing.
In Revelation 2 and 3, the word was to the seven churches. What was the thought? What was the theme through all those churches? What was He looking for?
What was the Father looking for as He went through those churches? He was looking for Christ. He was looking for the reality of Jesus Christ, the light among the churches.
So I would say that He is looking for an expression of the body of Christ in the local assemblies. There in Ephesus and in Laodicea, He was looking for the same thing He is looking for today: an expression of Christ.
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
He is looking for a bride, a bride preparing herself for His return. Revelation 19:7-9 is a familiar passage:
Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.
He is after preparing a bride. God’s purpose is bound up in His Son.
Let us look a little at Peter’s vision of Christ. Peter really saw something. Peter saw the Lord. He really received a vision of the Lord.
I am going to go out on a limb and say that often I hear, “I don’t see it. I don’t have that vision.” You know what? God is not a respecter of persons. He would have us all have that vision of Christ and His church.
If we are not there, we need to humble ourselves and say, “Lord, I give myself to You. Show me Your will.” I am sixty-five. I do not have anything else to waste my life on. What else do we have to waste our lives on?
Let us humble ourselves and ask the Lord to show us Himself and His purpose. I think it is interesting that this vision of the Lord, and this whole passage, stuck with Peter his whole life.
Peter struggled. We know how often he stumbled and fell. Let us look at Matthew 16:21-23.
This passage is an entrance into the Lord moving toward the cross, moving toward Calvary. When He expressed it to Peter, what did Peter say?
Forbid it, Lord! Forbid it that You should die. Forbid it that You should go to the cross.
And what was the Lord’s response?
Get behind Me, Satan.
Ooh. Whoa. How many of us—I know it includes me, I do not have any question—if we received a stern rebuke, would we get offended? Would we go away? Would we turn the lights off as we left?
Now Peter had that vision. He said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and it held him his whole life. What is our vision of Christ?
Think about the things Peter went on to. At Pentecost, after receiving the Holy Spirit, I think he preached the most powerful sermon I ever heard.
In his personal relationship with the Lord Jesus after the Lord was risen, there in John 21, the Lord could tell Peter, “Tend My lambs. Tend My sheep.”
In 1 Peter, we see that he really began to progress. You start there, and we are always going on. There is a progression. Peter was progressing; he was going on. Let us read 1 Peter 2:4-5.
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God,
you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
In spite of his dealings, in spite of needing to come to the end of himself, Peter stayed in the race and never gave up. He could not have given up had he not always seen, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
It was not Peter; it was Christ in Peter that allowed him to go on. Let us look at 1 Peter 2:9-10.
This is a continuation of stone building:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession,
so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him Who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Brothers and sisters, we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession. Our lives are not our own.
The church, the body of Christ, declares His greatness. By us meeting together, by honoring the Lord at the table, we declare the Lord. It is a big thing. I am here to tell you, it is a big thing.
How about Paul? Paul had a vision. Paul had a vision. He began with seeing the Lord. He never turned back. Paul saw the Lord. He did not quit.
Paul was in a little different condition than Peter. Peter was following the Lord; he really had a heart toward the Lord. Paul was out to destroy the testimony of Jesus. But God apprehended him and used him greatly.
Probably Paul is a little more like most of us. We could care less. I wonder how many were really pursuing the Lord. Anyway, Acts 9:3-6:
As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him;
and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”
And He said, “I am Jesus Whom you are persecuting, but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.”
Well, Paul did that. He obeyed. The Lord called him, and he went to the city. He could not see, so he needed somebody to take him.
But Paul’s response was, “Who are You, Lord?” Who are You, Lord? Could we ask ourselves that same question? Be honest and say, “Who are You, Lord? I need to know Who You are.”
His life was never the same. He spent his whole life pursuing the Lord and serving among the local assemblies.
Paul had a great continuing revelation of Christ and His church, but it was all based on seeing the Lord. We can say, “Well, I’ve seen the church. I’ve seen the Lord,” and then we can go off trying to copy something and trying to make something happen. It is gross.
We are the church because we are born into the church. Our church relationship is Christ perfecting Himself in us.
Paul spent his days wasting his life upon the local assemblies and building up the body of Christ. Things were a real mess. Golly, think about Corinthians. What a mess. Yet he never turned his back. He never gave up.
He was a master builder. First Corinthians 3:9-11:
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.
According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it.
But each man must be careful how he builds on it.
For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Living stones being built—Paul was about being a builder, being a master builder. Toward the end of his life, we are familiar with what Paul told King Agrippa:
So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision.
Both Peter and Paul had personal experiences of the Lord. They saw Him, but they continued on from that place to see Him.
They were called with purpose and served God’s eternal purpose among the churches all their days. Ephesians 1:22-23 says:
And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all.
Let us go back now and look at some verses in the larger passage with which we started: Matthew 16:17-18.
Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven.
I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.
Based on Peter seeing the Lord and seeing Who He was, the Lord said, “Based on this, I can build My church.” So what is the first thing we say? The Lord will build His church.
He will build His church if we let Him.
So often we can think, “Well, I’ve seen the church. Now I have to get about doing God’s business here and getting this thing built.” What we need to do is present ourselves unreservedly to the Lord.
That is another word that has come to me frequently: might we present ourselves unreservedly to the Lord and His purpose?
This does not mean that, because the Lord is the One building the church—“I will build My church”—we have no responsibility. Our responsibility is to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow the Lord as He leads us in doing His will. Submit under the mighty hand of God.
He will build His church, and we need to trust Him to do so as we present our bodies as a living sacrifice for His use, day by day. May we commit ourselves unreservedly to Him and His purpose.
“Upon this rock I will build My church.” Right here, some of the greatest error of the centuries is to be found. The misunderstanding is that Peter was the rock and that the church would be built on Peter. That is the whole pope thing. It is gross.
But it is not Peter. Who is it? Who is the rock here?
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
There are two different rocks in this passage. The first rock is petra. It denotes a mass of rock, distinct from petros, a detached stone or boulder—a stone that might be thrown or easily moved.
The rock is Christ. The Amplified says this is a huge rock, like the Rock of Gibraltar: a rocky peak, a massive rock. This is not Peter; it is Christ, the rock, the foundation.
Continuing in the verse we read before, where Paul said he was a master builder:
For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Christ is the builder. He is the foundation. The body of Christ is Jesus Christ. We need to see Him as everything and see Him as the testimony.
The testimony of Jesus Christ is Jesus. The testimony in the local assembly, rightfully understood, is Jesus Christ living through the church. It is not a series of teachings and experiences that are the testimony; it is the testimony of Jesus in and through His people.
So this is good. This is good. He is the foundation, and He is the builder.
Scot-free—we do not have to do anything. We have no responsibility, right? No. Wrong, wrong. We do have responsibility. We have great responsibility.
“You are Peter.” Peter means petros, which is translated in the Amplified as a large piece of rock.
Over here it said, “a stone that might be thrown or easily moved.” Peter is a rock. He has the rock life. The life of Christ has been entrusted to him.
What is he to do? If we each have that rock nature, which is used to build up the church, then as born-again believers, we too have that nature.
We need to allow the Lord to use us to build His church. We do have that responsibility in giving ourselves unreservedly to the Lord, for Him to build His church and prepare a bride for His return.
As I was thinking about this, I thought: we do have a choice to give ourselves to the Lord, not to be discouraged by what we see, but to persevere. We do not have to give ourselves to the Lord. We can hold on to our own lives tightly.
It is everybody’s loss if we do. The Lord loses living stones, and we have wasted our lives.
Kenny said Wednesday night at the opening prayer meeting, “Teach us to number our days,” and it really stuck with me. Teach us to number our days. How are we spending our days?
If we are busy in our jobs, we may say, “We do not have much time to think about that. I don’t have a choice. I’ve got to work all the time.” Or we are retired, semi-retired, and we say, “Well, that’s easy.” No, it is the same thing. No matter who we are or where we are, how do we spend our days? Teach us to number our days.
How are we spending our days? Are we given to God, to the Lord and His purpose?
There is another section in this passage. It says, “The gates of Hades will not overpower it.” This is a big thought.
Sometimes we are afraid to think about the enemy, to think about him doing work. But I think it is very important to consider it because, personally, I do not like to give the enemy too much credit.
You can get into this thing: “Well, the enemy did that. He’s behind this,” and spend a whole day chasing the enemy. Our attention is not turned upon Jesus; it is turned upon the enemy, giving him too much credit.
But we dare not be naive. He says, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” If He says that, then the gates of hell must be trying to prevail against it.
I believe the enemy is trying to divide us, to wear us out, to accuse us, to take us under, and to get our eyes on ourselves rather than on Him and His purpose. We need to be aware and not be naive.
It is interesting that we have often heard that Ephesians is the greatest exposition of God’s eternal purpose. It is the high level. Remember what Peter said? Paul talks about really complicated things. “I always can’t get what he is talking about.” Pretty difficult.
Paul, after writing so much of Ephesians—which really is God’s eternal purpose—concluded the book in Ephesians 6:10-13:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.
Finally, this is not tacked on to the exposition of God’s eternal purpose. It is part of His letter. Be strong in the Lord. Do not let the enemy take you out. Be aware of his tactics.
We can often think that the things we get stuck in, and the condition we are in, are other things. But do not be naive, and do not forget to consider that the enemy might be really working to take you out.
In one of his messages at conference, Brother Kong said, “I want to tell you a secret—the secret of the overcomer.” He said it is an open secret.
Revelation 12:
And they overcame because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.
The blood of the Lamb answers every accusation and stops the work of the enemy. We need to stand fast—stand fast in the victory that is ours.
The last little section of this passage is Matthew 16:19:
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.
That was weird. I want to make you nervous. That’s a paragraph; it is not a separate paragraph.
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” That is part of the church. Binding, loosing, and standing for God’s purpose and His will are not separate things.
The church is called to pray. The church is called into corporate prayer. I know there are different—obviously many—opinions about that among us, but it is right here: one paragraph, one thought. He will give us the keys.
God has called us to stand for His purpose. Just us being together and praying really answers much. Let the Lord give us direction to hit the mark in corporate prayer.
Who do you say that I am?
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Let me summarize a few thoughts. What have we been saying today?
We need to know Jesus Christ personally, daily, in an abiding way. It is wonderful. It is not an end in itself. It is a great thing, but it is not an end in itself.
If we see Him and know Him, we will see that He has called us according to purpose. Our lives have a purpose—an eternal purpose—to serve Him in His house, not a short-term purpose.
God’s eternal purpose is His Son. It is all wrapped up in His Son, in Him and through Him.
Our testimony is Jesus Christ, and to express the body of Christ in time and place registers in eternity. All hell would stand against it.
In this little book that I wanted everybody to take—if you promise to read it, one for each family—The Heavenly Vision is Christ and His church.
He said it is uppermost in God’s heart. The earthly vision is man and his own self, but the heavenly vision is Christ and His church. It is uppermost in God’s heart.
He wants to build His church, His bride, to prepare for His return. Our responsibility is to present ourselves as a living sacrifice for His purpose.
The gates of hell are attempting to prevail, but they will not prevail. We have been called to be intercessors, to be a praying people.
DeVern Fromke said, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”
The question I have for myself, and for each one of us, is: am I willing to give myself unreservedly—unreservedly—to the Lord, for Him and His purpose?
I think it would be awesome if we would give ourselves unreservedly, unreservedly to the Lord, for Himself and His purpose.
Let us pray.
Lord, we thank You that You have given us Your Word. We thank You that You have spoken to our hearts that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Forgive us for not living that way. Lord, we believe You have called us for a purpose.
Have mercy on us that we can be those who serve the purpose of God in our generation. Do not let us get frustrated. Do not let us fall asleep. Do not let us get distracted.
Keep us on track, as Peter and Paul did, where Paul could say, “I have not been disobedient to the heavenly vision.”