August 14, 2022 / Defining Moments / The Most Defining Moment in Life

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. Have you ever looked back in time and considered

how certain defining moments have shaped your life in future? Today, John Metter, lead

pastor of Cross City Church, looks at the importance of defining moments and how we

can recognize what God is saying through them. The title of the message today is the most

defining moment in your life and if you have your Bibles, please take them and turn to

Matthew chapter 16 beginning in verse 13. Matthew 16 beginning in verse 13. By the way,

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

as you've just heard by our video announcement, we'll be starting a new message series next

week called the Origin series. That means that we'll be walking through the book of

Genesis from chapter one through chapter 12 over the course of the next number of months.

It's a great journey through Genesis one through 12. It deals not only with a God who created

heavens and earth and it talks about the creation, but it also answers what I consider the most

important questions in life. Questions like who is God and what is truth and who was I

created to be and why am I on the planet? What is my purpose? All those kinds of questions

that our culture is missing the answers to badly, but we have answers in the word of

God that change everything about how we view life. And so that begins the Origin series

next week. So stand together with me if you would as we open up Matthew chapter 16 today.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

You know, you're going to have a million experiences in life, but only a few defining moments.

I call these defining moments God moments because they're unforgettable. You have these

moments and in these moments you find out something about God. You find out something

about yourself. Sometimes you learn something about the situation that you're facing, but

they're God moments and those God moments define you for the rest of your life. Now

my goal today is very simple. I want you to see the spiritual characteristics of a God

moment in your life. I want you to be able to recognize when God's speaking to you and

recognize when God's pointing you in some direction or another. I don't want you to

confuse that with all the other experiences that you have in life because I want you to

see when God is really at work in your life. I think over the last few weeks we've made

it very plain that these moments, these defining moments affect the way we practice our faith,

the way we see ourselves, our identity, the way we face challenges, the way we know and

have assurance that God loves us and forgives us, the way we practice generosity, all kinds

of things are affecting us when we have these God moments and it's really important that

we have them. But this one is, I think, the most important because this one is a God moment

that happened to the apostle Peter and it is the most defining moment that every person

should have and must have to truly know God. That's pretty important.

So here we are, Matthew chapter 16 beginning in verse 13 with the apostle Peter in a conversation

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

with Jesus. The Bible says, 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 say,

some say John the Baptist and others Elijah, but still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

And he said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered, you are the Christ,

the son of the living God. And Jesus said to him, blessed are you Simon Bar-Jonah 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,

the gates of hell will not overpower it. Join me in prayer. Father today, thank you for

this account of this moment between Peter and the Lord Jesus and the heavenly father.

Father, my prayer today is what I've stated that each of us will know how to recognize

those spiritual moments where you're talking to us and we would respond well to it. And

Lord, we ask that you do that for each one of us individually by the power of your Holy

Spirit. In Jesus name we pray. And everybody said, amen. Please be seated.

Now this is an often talked about text. Sometimes people read this passage and they want to

focus on the victorious church because it is an encouraging thing to know that the gates

of hell will not prevail against the church. And then sometimes people want to focus on

the leadership role of the apostle Peter from that moment forward. Who would he be to the

historical church? And I can spend hours with you talking about those two subjects when

it comes to this passage, but not today. And here's why, because the most important part

of this passage, the primary meaning of what we've just read is that Peter has a moment

with God that changes his life forever. And this is the defining moment for his life and

his faith and everything he does from that point forward. It's a really important text,

but it's a pre-church text. The church has not been formed yet. In fact, this is the

first time Jesus mentions the word church in the Bible. The first time it's found in

the Bible. And of course, church means to call out ones. And that's who Peter is going

to be. God is going to call him out of the world and calling out from everyone else.

He's going to call every disciple out from the world and form the church after he gives

the Holy spirit to them. But what's happening here is pre-church. This text is about how

God reveals himself to people. This text is about how God shows you who he is. I can't

think of anything more important than that in my whole life than to know who God really,

really is. It also demonstrates how Peter and the disciples of Jesus, after having walked

alongside him for three years, next to him for three years, sometimes behind him for

three years, a few times in front of him for three years, still don't know him well enough.

They know all about Jesus. They can describe him in a hundred different ways, but they

have yet to have that moment where Jesus reveals himself fully. They have yet to have that

moment where they fully realize who he is and are able to embrace him forever. And that

moment changes their lives from that day onward. By the way, your life will change when you

have this moment with God as well. It'll be personal. It'll be real. It'll be powerful.

It'll be transformational, but it'll be something that God reveals to you that helps you know

something about him that is different from where you can learn anything else about Jesus.

It'll change your life. So let's look at these characteristics that happen in the life of

Peter and how they can happen in your life. First of all, it's a personal moment, a personal

moment. Look at the questions that we opened up this text with in verse 13. Jesus was asking

his disciples, this group, this small group of disciples, who do people say that the Son

of Man is? Now in the timeline of Jesus' earthly ministry, this is towards the end. In fact,

he's on his way to the cross and they know all the great things that Jesus has done.

They know him as a miracle worker. They know him as a teacher, as an amazing leader and

as a mentor, but they don't know him well enough yet. They're not ready to lay down

their lives for him yet because they don't see him exactly as who he is. He's setting

them up for what he's about to show them. And so they know a great deal about Jesus,

just like many of you in this room know a great deal about Jesus. You've read books

about Jesus, heard messages about Jesus. You've read passages of scripture about Jesus. You

have all kinds of ideas about Jesus, but you must have this understanding about Jesus that

Peter is about to have. So first the question is general. Jesus is asking the question.

It's a big question. Who do people say that I am? Now there's a huge question that you

need to ask yourself as well. And the answer in general ways. Some say John the Baptist

and some say Elijah. Some say Jeremiah or one of the prophets. So they're answering

with a variety of questions and people do have various views of Jesus, don't they? If

we were to go out on a street today somewhere in a crowded place, say a park, and I were

to hold up a microphone to a random group of a hundred people and say to them, who do

you say Jesus is? I would get 100 different answers. Wouldn't you agree with that? I mean,

some would say something about his teacher. He's a moral leader. He's a great example.

He's compassionate. He's loving. And all of us have these different ideas about Jesus.

The crazy thing is I could stand at the back of a church building after church one day

with a microphone and ask the same question and still get a variety of answers about who

Jesus Christ is. But what Jesus wants Peter to know is something that is far more clear

than all these other things. And of course the point of the text is Jesus is not John

the Baptist and Jesus is not Elijah and Jesus is not just another one of the prophets. He's

something far, far more. He answers, he asks a very general question, then he moves to

a very specific question. I put both of them on the screen because I want you to see how

these questions contrast with each other. He says, first of all, who do people say that

the son of man is? And they answer with that general answer. And then he gets more personal.

He says, but who do you say that I am? The you is emphatic in the original language,

meaning that Jesus is zeroing in on these disciples, basically saying it doesn't matter

what everybody else says. Who do you guys think he is? Now you is plural, so he's asking

his whole group of disciples, who do you say that I am? But notice that he's moving from

the crowd to the small group and when Peter answers as an individual, Peter's taking it

personal so Jesus is always moving in that direction and that's what's happening right

there. By the way, I love how God always moves from the crowd moment to the small group moment

to the personal moment. And he does that because he's a personal God. He doesn't just relate

to you as a member of the crowd or as a member of the population on the planet. He relates

to you as an individual. One of my favorite scenes in scripture is where Jesus feeds the

multitudes and at the feeding of the multitudes, you know, he breaks the bread and passes it

and the fish and passes it. Five loaves, two fish feed 5,000 men along with a host of women

and children and it's really amazing and at the end of this feeding of the multitudes,

they gather up what's left and there are 12 baskets of food and Jesus gives each of the

12 disciples a basket of food and tells them to go down to the boat and get in the boat

and cross the Sea of Galilee. And then the storm begins to blow and there they are in

the boat terrified but with the evidence of a supernatural God in their hands, he multiplied

this bread and yet they're still worried for their lives and that's when Jesus comes walking

on the water past the boat. Remember this story, are you with me there? I want you to

notice that Jesus shows the crowd something about himself and then he shows the small

group something about himself in that boat. And it's Peter again that stands up and says,

Lord, if that's you, bid me come to you. Ask me to walk on the water towards you. So Jesus

gives him a one word command, you know what it is? Come. And Peter hops out of the boat

and starts walking on the water. Pretty amazing until he sinks, right? One of those amazing

moments. But from the crowd to the small group to the individual, that's what he's doing

here. That's what God's always about. And you know why he's doing that? Because you

can't just know him from the crowd. How do you can't fully know him just in the small

group? You have to fully know him when it's a one on one. You have to know him personally.

Now some people have trouble believing that, but if they read the Bible, they would find

from Genesis to Revelation, God's a personal God who has conversations with people one

on one. And he actually arranges these conversations in very unusual places and very unusual way.

Go to Genesis chapter three, where Adam and Eve have sinned and God comes and finds them

in the garden of Eden. And he says, where are you? And he begins to interact with them

and talk to them. He covers their nakedness with the skin of an innocent animal. And they

began to walk together again. Or read the life of Abraham where God told him to get

up and leave where he was for his whole life. They go to a place he would later reveal to

him. That takes faith. That's not for Jacob who rustled with the angel, but met God or

Joseph. The Bible says about Joseph, the Lord was with him even in the darkest of times

in prison, but God would reveal himself to Joseph over and over sometimes through interpreting

dreams and sometimes just with his presence or Moses. God spoke with Moses and the man

would speak with his friend. The Bible says, and God interacted with him. David who loved

the presence of the Lord and interacted with him, the prophets who heard from God and spoke

powerfully all the way through the Bible. God is a personal God. And I want you to get

this in your mind because if you don't think this is true, then you may not realize that

he wants a personal moment with you. But who am I? Well, you're part of his creation. That's

who you are. But who am I? Well, you're someone that he wants to reveal himself to because

he's a personal God. Consider this, that all these names I've named in the Old Testament,

he knows them, he knows where they are, he knows what they need, but he really wants

them to know him. That he wants you to know him. Recently, I came across a great video

and I enjoyed watching technology kind of unfold as we look at a person on the planet

and then zoom out before zooming back in. I want to show you that video today. I want

you to think about the reality of who God is. And this is really where we all began,

where this lady is, this close up view, where it's just us. But then we began to realize

how small we are and how big our world is. The first is because we see all the people

around us from all over our city or our state or our country. But then one day we look up

and realize, wow, there's a whole other world. We can't even fathom. After a while, we might

begin to realize just how big our world is and how small our planet is. And if the Earth

that we felt was so big at first is actually very, very small in the light of our solar

system. And if we keep looking after a while, we'll realize how small our solar system is

and what a big universe it is that we're in. And hopefully it'll dawn on us how big God

is who created all of this. He's huge and he holds all this together. He's the only

one who can. He created it. God is incredible and big. But then we think this, we think,

well, he's big. His creation is massive, but I'm small and I'm insignificant and I'm

invisible to this God. In fact, some of us stop right there, but we'd be wrong because

someday it may dawn on us that he's so great that he can see us at the same time he can

see his whole creation. And it's not the rest of creation he's focused on. It's us. No,

it's me. It's you. He's focused on speaking to you, leading you, loving you. He knows

you, but he wants you to know him. I wonder, when does God really zoom in on people like

that? He absolutely does. How many of you have experienced that where you realize this

massive huge awesome God knows who you are, where you are, and has spoken to you? Would

you raise your hand? Man, I think the evidence speaks for itself. This incredible God knows

us and wants us to know him personally. It's such a big deal. Our creator, the God of the

universe wants us to know him in a personal way. And that's what's happening, it says

the reaphilipi. That's what's happening to Peter and the rest of the disciples. Who do

you say that I am? And of course, Peter being Peter opens his mouth before any of the other

disciples and he says what the rest of the disciples have been discussing among themselves.

He opens his mouth with a personal answer and he says, you are the Christ, the son of

the living God. I mean, this is massive. This is a huge statement. This is the statement

that Peter makes that says, I know who you are. It's what I call Peter's confession of

faith. It's the moment of realizing that Jesus is fully everything he says he was and knowing

it so confidently, he was ready to say it out loud and not just thinking in his mind.

It's a big confession and it has so much meaning behind it because Peter was searching for

the things that Jesus brought. His confession means that in you, Jesus, all the prophecies

of the Messiah have been fulfilled. And in you, Jesus, all the sacrifices of the old

Testament system find completion. And in you, all the hopes of God fearing people are fulfilled.

And in you, all the promises of scripture will come to pass or have come to pass in

you. And in you, the full expression of the heavenly father has come to pass that we can

see you. And in you, Jesus, God has become flesh and we are face to face. And in you,

we find our salvation and forgiveness and life. Peter's basically saying our search

is over. The answer to everything is you, Jesus. That's what's happening. That's the

personal moment that he has. And perhaps he expresses that for all the other disciples

at that moment, but it's really, really Peter who gets that. Jesus later on makes a statement.

He says, this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ

whom you have sent. And Peter has his moment right here in this text. I've been around

a while in ministry and every defining moment that I've had in life has been personal and

individual and intimate. And when I hear stories of people that have encounters with God, they

are the same. You have to be alone with God for a while to have some of these experiences.

Don't be afraid to be alone with God because he will reveal things to you that will surprise

you about himself. But God will help you have these defining moments. I've had defining

moments with God in a crowd where he singled me out and a moment that I felt no one else

saw or was aware of or even in the room, but God and myself or reading the Bible. And all

of a sudden something jumps off the page and I see God getting all personal with me and

directing me and speaking to me. This is how God consistently reveals himself and his will

go for our lives. And I have to ask you a question at this point, has this happened

to you where God became personal and real and face to face with you where, where you

realized something was going on. There wasn't just information in your head and that God

was showing you something about himself. It will be a personal moment. But in this text,

you also learn it's a revelation moment. Verse 17 after Peter makes this huge confession

of faith, 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, this is where Jesus pauses and

explains to Peter exactly what happened. I explained it to him, not in a condescending

way, not in the belittling way, but he wants it to be crystal clear for all those disciples

there at that moment. He wants it to be crystal clear for us right here and now. This moment

is not about information. It's about revelation. This is where God shows you something that's

been revealed that you've never seen before, never known before, maybe hidden from you

before because you weren't ready and you weren't looking, but this is a moment where God reveals

himself. A revelation moment where God breaks through his mind and heart and spirit. But

even more than that, it tells us that Peter didn't learn this in a synagogue or from a

common conversation. The church hadn't been established yet. He didn't hear it in church.

No rabbi or prophet taught him that. This is the father revealed and the word reveal

again means to remove the veil. It's where God reveals a thing to us not known before.

All of a sudden, Peter gets it. Now I've got my own theory about Jesus' response to Peter

when Peter comes up with this huge confession, thou art the Christ, the son of the living

God. I mean, it's like a slam dunk in terms of knowing who Christ is. It's huge, but I

can imagine what Jesus must have been doing when Peter said this. Now Peter's one of my

favorite characters of the scripture, probably because Peter messes up more than anybody

else in the Bible. How many of you have seen that and noticed that? It's the first one

to talk. Sometimes he puts his foot in his mouth. I say sometimes he puts both feet in

his mouth. If I were to talk to you about how I believe Jesus probably speculatively

interacted with Peter, I would say sometimes Jesus probably as patient and long-suffering

as he was probably rolled his eyes a few times with what Peter said and did. How many of

you think that might be true? I mean, it's not a vote or anything like that, but there

are a few times where Jesus might have tried to pull some of his own hair out because he

was frustrated with Peter. I think it's a demonstration of God's patience that he left

Peter on the planet that long. I think this is the moment where Jesus smiled and said

he gets it. He understands who I am. He's seen all these miracles. He's heard all this

teaching. He's watched me as I have done ministry, but I think he gets it, Father. Thank you,

Father, for opening his eyes and letting him see who I really am. Jesus was smiling, I

believe, at that moment. It's this kind of moment that precedes our salvation. It's not

only the mental awareness of who Christ is, because this moment is so much more personal

than just a bunch of information in our minds. It's so intimate, so clear, so undeniable.

It's also the heart awareness. It's this kind of moment that lets people lay down their

lives for Christ. If you've ever wondered why someone is willing to die for Christ,

this is why, because they've seen who Christ really is that he's worth living for, he's

worth dying for, because they've seen him. They know who he is. It's a moment that brings

incredible revelation to our lives. The apostle John has had this moment. Here's how he words

it in 1 John 1. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with

our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life,

and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testified to you the eternal life which

was with the Father and was manifested to us. John's saying the same thing. God revealed

all these things to me. What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that

you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with

his Son Jesus Christ. That's what John says about the same kind of encounter that he had.

Even Mr. Doubter, Thomas, has this moment as well. Thomas is not a willful doubter. He's

just a guy that doesn't have enough evidence. Like a lot of us, we're looking for more evidence.

We want to know is God real? Is Jesus real? He didn't see Jesus in his resurrection body

as early as the other disciples. He said, unless I see those wounds in his side, in

his hands, I won't believe. Eight days later, Jesus shows up in the meeting room and shows

all these things to Thomas. You know what Thomas did at that moment? The Bible says

in John chapter 20 verse 28, Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God, his confession

John 20:28

of faith. Very similar to what Peter said in Matthew chapter 16. If you're a doubter

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

out there today, let me just tell you, God will give you the evidence you need to no

longer be a doubter. Amen. That you can believe him. I've been in ministry for 40 years as

I've said, and I've seen this happen over and over, where God reveals himself to people

who want to know him. Sometimes those who are stubborn about it, God will reveal himself

to them. I frequently hear how he gets close to them and they're close to him. He becomes

intimate and personal and manifests himself in very real ways. And they go on in life,

never again doubting their salvation, never again doubting their identity in Christ. And

here's what I want to say to you today. I want to say to you, if you want to know him,

he will reveal himself to you. I believe that with all my heart. But if you look at the

rest of the verse, there's a piece that I haven't covered yet. It's just three words,

but man, they're important. It's what I call a transformational moment. In verse 17, those

first three words are these words, blessed are you. Now this is Jesus, who is Christ,

the son of the living God, pronouncing this upon Peter. And this is an incredible statement.

It's a blessing bestowed. It's a gift given by the only one able to give it. And that's

Jesus. Now notice that this is a present tense statement. This does not say blessed will

you be one day. It's present tense. You are now and will be blessed. It's an immediate

possession. I'm giving you something as a gift. This is God's pouring of grace and favor

and blessing into the life of Peter. And at this moment where God declares his favor and

grace on Peter is not a church moment. It's not a reward moment for anything Peter has

done. It's a moment of awareness and faith where Peter has stood up and said, you're

the Christ, the son of the living God. Blessed are you. Simon Barjona immediately follows

in that conversation. That's pretty powerful because it's this realization of who Jesus

is and this confession that is the moment of salvation and the entrance into eternal

life for Peter and us, all of us. The word blessed means possessing God's favor being

marked by his fullness. It's the gift of eternal life and forgiveness and favor that comes

from acknowledging Christ as Lord. I love Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. I share it all the time.

He says, for my grace you have been saved through faith and that's not of yourselves.

And then most of us know the next line. It is a gift from God and not a result of works.

That's really important for you today because most of us think we have to do something or

several somethings in order to get God's favor or God's grace or be blessed. But really God

gives this on the basis of recognizing who Jesus is. It's really, really a big deal.

And Peter later on explained this in 2 Peter chapter 1. Let me read a verse or two to you

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

of this. He says, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus

our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us or given us everything pertaining

to life and godliness. That's everything. Everything you could ever need or have, he's

given it to you at that moment. Through the true knowledge of him who called us by his

own glory and excellence. I believe that's Peter's commentary on Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

I gained the true knowledge of who Jesus is and I had from that moment on everything pertaining

to life and godliness. Now that does not say that Peter has arrived yet. In Matthew 16

he's not arrived. He believes and he's confessed his faith and certainly he's saved in the

sense of forgiveness of sin and he'll walk with Jesus later on being full of the Holy

Spirit. But he's not arrived. He's not perfect. The reason I know that is because I keep reading

my Bible. Even though God's going to use Peter in a significant way, that big confession

is where we started off, that Peter is going to do some things that don't make it out of

sense. Six verses later he rebukes Jesus for saying he's going to the cross and Jesus says

get thee behind me Satan. Kind of uncomfortable isn't it? A few chapters later he denies Jesus

three times and then still later in John 21 he decides to go back to fishing for fish

instead of fishing for men. Jesus is going to continue to walk with him and continue

to forgive him and later on fill him with the Holy Spirit. But this is not a moment

of arrival but it is a moment of salvation where he begins the journey and Jesus will

walk with him all of the way. It's big. But here's the thing that you need to carry away.

This big confession, you are the Christ, the son of the living God, it's where we stand

as a foundation of faith and foundation for the church. This confession of Christ is what

makes a true Christian stand apart from every other religious movement on the planet. Think

about it. Every departure from the faith, every false religion, every cult is built

on an erroneous view of Jesus because Jesus is not just an angel the way some say, not

just a teacher the way others say, not just a moral example as still others say. He's

not just a miracle worker, he's the Christ, the son of the living God. He's God in the

flesh. He's savior and Lord or he's not at all. He's all or nothing to you. And the truth

is the whole church of Jesus Christ is built on this confession of faith that this is who

Jesus is. Paul said in Romans chapter 10 verse nine, but if you confess with your mouth,

Romans 10 · chapter mention

Jesus said, Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you

will be saved. I want to end with two questions today. First, has he shown you this? And secondly,

have you confessed this as truth? How did he show you this? And have you confessed this

as truth? I can't think of a more important moment for you in your life than right here

right now, because if this passage is true and it is, then really eternity stands in

the, in the gap there. It stands to be gained or not. Watch you come to the place of confessing

Jesus said, Lord, you're the Christ, the son of the living God. The scripture says in Romans

10, you'll be saved when you confess with your mouth, believe in your heart. That's

when Christ opens the windows of revelation and lets you know him personally. As I've

said today, if you want to know him, he wants to reveal himself to you. Personally, I want

you to bow your heads today across the room, close your eyes for a moment. I prayed a prayer

earlier in the service and that prayer was that we could be free from the distractions

in our minds and willing to zero in on a moment with, with God. And I pray that that prayer

has been answered for you. I pray that you would be willing to do that. I pray that you

would want to do that. We'd love to talk to you about that. I'm going to pray a prayer

in just a moment after asking you to stand in just a moment. And while it'd be our closing

prayer, it's also a very important prayer for you to pray. Should you want to know him

and then I'm going to ask you to do this. I'm going to ask you to go to the decision

stations that we have that are set up to have these kinds of conversations, conversations

about has this ever happened to me? And if I want to make this decision, have this moment,

can I get somebody to help me with that? And the answer to both of those is yes, we can

help you with those. Just a few moments as I pray, you'll have that opportunity. I want

you to stand with me at this moment. Father in Jesus name, I'm so thankful for the privilege

of having the opportunity to open the word and see how you became so personal, so real

to Peter. Father, my prayer today is that you will become personal to each of us in

the room, that there would not be one man or woman or child who would walk away believing

that you're impersonal, that you don't want to know them, that there's no way that they

can have a relationship with you. Father, I pray that you would dispel all of that and

help them to know you have come near and you are there and you do care and love them. And

father, my prayer today is that they would come to know you as Lord and savior. Father,

help them to have the boldness and the courage to make this decision, the step of faith.

And I thank you father for this opportunity today. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.